Internal patterns in the PRL AutoGanzfeld database may shed some light on the plausability of tha... more Internal patterns in the PRL AutoGanzfeld database may shed some light on the plausability of that hypotheis. This hypothesis would predict stronger effects for sessions where the subject is not sure about his ratings because in those sessions the experimenter may be able to influnece him/her into another direction. A secodary analysis where the scoring in sessions with an extreme rating is compared with the scoring in sessions with a lower rating shows the oppposite trend. Therefore it can be concluded that this pattern does not support the auditory sound leakage hypothesis.
Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. N... more Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Psychologie, 53, 95-99.
One of the basic ingredients of the Observational Theory, the collapse of the state vector by mea... more One of the basic ingredients of the Observational Theory, the collapse of the state vector by means of observation is tested. The experiment amounts to a conceptual replication of the Hall-experiment published in the seventies in Foundations of Physics. In that experiment, final observers of a quantum event had to guess if a pre-observation had taken place. Although framed as a physical experiment, the authors did explicitly refer to the possibility of a relation with parapsychological phenomena like telepathy. Two improvements are introduced. First the delay between pre-observation and final observation of the same quantum event is increased from a few microseconds in the original experiment to 1 second in this replication. Second, rather than using the observers' verbal response as the dependent variable, we use objective measurements, the early brain responses of the observers as measured by EEG as the dependent variable. These early responses cover the period of incipient c...
Human physiology changes in predictable ways in anticipation of and after exposure to emotional v... more Human physiology changes in predictable ways in anticipation of and after exposure to emotional visual stimuli. In a series of experiments reported by Radin (1997), it was found that even when stimuli were adequately randomized, so that the upcoming stimuli could not be inferred, that anticipatory responses (as measured by changes in skin conductance) before exposure to emotional pictures were significantly larger than before exposure to calm pictures. In three subsequent experiments, the first and third close replications and the second a conceptual replication of Radin's studies, Bierman confirmed this so called "presentiment" or pre-feeling effect. Bierman subsequently decided to see whether these anomalies observed in physiological baseline measurements could also be found in data from studies published previously in the main stream literature. Two datasets were found and reanalyzed. The first dataset was from a study on the speed with which fear arises in animal ...
Physical laws are inherently time symmetric. It is generally assumed that the fact that we experi... more Physical laws are inherently time symmetric. It is generally assumed that the fact that we experience only one direction of time development is related to constraints like those imposed on the universe at the time of the 'big bang'. The unilateral time direction is directly related to human perception of 'causality'. A cause precedes its effect. In the paper the consequences of a less restricted view on time are discussed. It is argued that a) there is empirical evidence that effects can precede causes (or more precisely: that distributions of chance events might be biased contingent on future context) , b) there is no necessary logical paradox related to these phenomena, c c) that these findings might be interpreted as an extension of the recent interpretation of Quantum Physics but d) that the implications are farreaching in as far the western scientific paradigm is concerned.
The "subjective reduction" interpretation of measurement in quantum physics proposes that the col... more The "subjective reduction" interpretation of measurement in quantum physics proposes that the collapse of the wave-packet, associated with measurement, is due to the consciousness of human observers. A refined conceptual replication of an earlier experiment, designed and carried out to test this interpretation in the 1970s, is reported. Two improvements are introduced. First, the delay between pre-observation and final observation of the same quantum event is increased from a few microseconds in the original experiment to one second in this replication. Second, rather than using the final observers' verbal response as the dependent variable, his early brain responses as measured by EEG are used. These early responses cover a period during which an observer is not yet conscious of an observed event. Our results support the "subjective reduction" hypothesis insofar as significant differences in the brain responses of the final observer are found, depending on whether or not the pre-observer has been looking at the quantum event (exact binomial p < 0.02). Alternative "normal" explanations are discussed and rejected. It is concluded that the present results do justify further research along these lines.
Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. N... more Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Psychologie, 53, 95-99.
Internal patterns in the PRL AutoGanzfeld database may shed some light on the plausability of tha... more Internal patterns in the PRL AutoGanzfeld database may shed some light on the plausability of that hypotheis. This hypothesis would predict stronger effects for sessions where the subject is not sure about his ratings because in those sessions the experimenter may be able to influnece him/her into another direction. A secodary analysis where the scoring in sessions with an extreme rating is compared with the scoring in sessions with a lower rating shows the oppposite trend. Therefore it can be concluded that this pattern does not support the auditory sound leakage hypothesis.
Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. N... more Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Psychologie, 53, 95-99.
One of the basic ingredients of the Observational Theory, the collapse of the state vector by mea... more One of the basic ingredients of the Observational Theory, the collapse of the state vector by means of observation is tested. The experiment amounts to a conceptual replication of the Hall-experiment published in the seventies in Foundations of Physics. In that experiment, final observers of a quantum event had to guess if a pre-observation had taken place. Although framed as a physical experiment, the authors did explicitly refer to the possibility of a relation with parapsychological phenomena like telepathy. Two improvements are introduced. First the delay between pre-observation and final observation of the same quantum event is increased from a few microseconds in the original experiment to 1 second in this replication. Second, rather than using the observers' verbal response as the dependent variable, we use objective measurements, the early brain responses of the observers as measured by EEG as the dependent variable. These early responses cover the period of incipient c...
Human physiology changes in predictable ways in anticipation of and after exposure to emotional v... more Human physiology changes in predictable ways in anticipation of and after exposure to emotional visual stimuli. In a series of experiments reported by Radin (1997), it was found that even when stimuli were adequately randomized, so that the upcoming stimuli could not be inferred, that anticipatory responses (as measured by changes in skin conductance) before exposure to emotional pictures were significantly larger than before exposure to calm pictures. In three subsequent experiments, the first and third close replications and the second a conceptual replication of Radin's studies, Bierman confirmed this so called "presentiment" or pre-feeling effect. Bierman subsequently decided to see whether these anomalies observed in physiological baseline measurements could also be found in data from studies published previously in the main stream literature. Two datasets were found and reanalyzed. The first dataset was from a study on the speed with which fear arises in animal ...
Physical laws are inherently time symmetric. It is generally assumed that the fact that we experi... more Physical laws are inherently time symmetric. It is generally assumed that the fact that we experience only one direction of time development is related to constraints like those imposed on the universe at the time of the 'big bang'. The unilateral time direction is directly related to human perception of 'causality'. A cause precedes its effect. In the paper the consequences of a less restricted view on time are discussed. It is argued that a) there is empirical evidence that effects can precede causes (or more precisely: that distributions of chance events might be biased contingent on future context) , b) there is no necessary logical paradox related to these phenomena, c c) that these findings might be interpreted as an extension of the recent interpretation of Quantum Physics but d) that the implications are farreaching in as far the western scientific paradigm is concerned.
The "subjective reduction" interpretation of measurement in quantum physics proposes that the col... more The "subjective reduction" interpretation of measurement in quantum physics proposes that the collapse of the wave-packet, associated with measurement, is due to the consciousness of human observers. A refined conceptual replication of an earlier experiment, designed and carried out to test this interpretation in the 1970s, is reported. Two improvements are introduced. First, the delay between pre-observation and final observation of the same quantum event is increased from a few microseconds in the original experiment to one second in this replication. Second, rather than using the final observers' verbal response as the dependent variable, his early brain responses as measured by EEG are used. These early responses cover a period during which an observer is not yet conscious of an observed event. Our results support the "subjective reduction" hypothesis insofar as significant differences in the brain responses of the final observer are found, depending on whether or not the pre-observer has been looking at the quantum event (exact binomial p < 0.02). Alternative "normal" explanations are discussed and rejected. It is concluded that the present results do justify further research along these lines.
Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. N... more Appeared as: Bierman, D.J. (1998). Discussie -Kritische analyse op 'PSI-bewijs' kan veel beter. Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Psychologie, 53, 95-99.
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