Psi Multimedia Resources Thread

The Parapsychological Association is posting quite a few videos on its YouTube channel at the moment (13 in the last three months):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs3rgEj...SWZA2k661Q

The latest is a panel discussion entitled "Roads Taken: Some Career Paths in Parapsychology":

[Laird]

Stephan Schwartz discusses parapsychology experiments with Jeff Mishlove:

[snip video]

Very interesting. The concept of "displacement" was new to me. Makes sense though.

One thing that confused me though was that Stephan said that to avoid displacement you need to be careful about selecting your target set - but wouldn't this be incompatible with blinding the studies?

Very interesting. The concept of "displacement" was new to me. Makes sense though.

Laird, as I recall, displacement seemed to occur fairly frequently in our Dream Experiment. I sometimes brought attention to the phenomenon, but perhaps not often enough. Or I may have done so more often before you joined the group.

One thing that confused me though was that Stephan said that to avoid displacement you need to be careful about selecting your target set - but wouldn't this be incompatible with blinding the studies?

The proper protocol for conducting experiments using target sets is to store a large number of them in a computer database and have the computer choose them randomly. In this way the experimenter can be blinded to them, just as the participants are.

Laird, as I recall, displacement seemed to occur fairly frequently in our Dream Experiment. I sometimes brought attention to the phenomenon, but perhaps not often enough. Or I may have done so more often before you joined the group.

Yes, I was going to say the same thing. Towards the end I was avoiding the in-depth discussion of the four images that used to go on while people were making their choices, because I thought it meant they were paying nearly as much attention to the decoys as to the target. When the target was revealed it was usually an anti-climax in comparison with the consideration of the four images the previous day.

The proper protocol for conducting experiments using target sets is to store a large number of them in a computer database and have the computer choose them randomly. In this way the experimenter can be blinded to them, just as the participants are.

I suppose for a precognition experiment there's nothing against the experimenter fine-tuning the target set after people have recorded their impressions and before the target is chosen. But trying to anticipate people's biases seems like an impossible task to me.

Yes, I was going to say the same thing. Towards the end I was avoiding the in-depth discussion of the four images that used to go on while people were making their choices, because I thought it meant they were paying nearly as much attention to the decoys as to the target. When the target was revealed it was usually an anti-climax in comparison with the consideration of the four images the previous day.

I recall this now, and at the time I accepted your reasons for later avoiding the discussion phase of the experiment. However, I still think it was beneficial for the participants to hash out their reasons for choosing one image over another, and point out inconsistencies in others' reasoning for choosing their targets. While these activities may have been overdone somewhat, it was a group activity that most of the participants seemed to enjoy. Besides, the fun aspect of the Dream Experiment was K9's original goal in setting it up.

I suppose for a precognition experiment there's nothing against the experimenter fine-tuning the target set after people have recorded their impressions and before the target is chosen. But trying to anticipate people's biases seems like an impossible task to me.

I feel the same way about the futility of anticipating participants' cultural biases. I think Stephan overstated that concern a bit.

I recall this now, and at the time I accepted your reasons for later avoiding the discussion phase of the experiment. However, I still think it was beneficial for the participants to hash out their reasons for choosing one image over another, and point out inconsistencies in others' reasoning for choosing their targets. While these activities may have been overdone somewhat, it was a group activity that most of the participants seemed to enjoy. Besides, the fun aspect of the Dream Experiment was K9's original goal in setting it up.

True. And it wasn't easy not to think about the images once I'd seen them - particularly on the one occasion when there was a very close resemblance with something in my dreams. Stopping yourself from thinking about something is very difficult.

Something I take issue with is Stephan's statement about the optimal size of the target set being five to seven targets. IIRC, the Maimonides Dream Lab went even further, selecting six to eight images per set! 

While it may be true that for gifted participants, larger target sets offer a way to more rapidly obtain statistical significance, the challenges in selecting a set of images that are orthogonal to one another also rise rapidly as the size of the set increases. I know I had much difficulty selecting sets of just four images in which the predominant colors for each image were substantially different. I can't imagine predominant colors being an important factor in the larger sets used by Schwartz and others.

[Laird]

Laird, as I recall, displacement seemed to occur fairly frequently in our Dream Experiment. I sometimes brought attention to the phenomenon, but perhaps not often enough. Or I may have done so more often before you joined the group.

Ah, my memory of that part of our experiment is weak, thanks for reminding me.

The proper protocol for conducting experiments using target sets is to store a large number of them in a computer database and have the computer choose them randomly. In this way the experimenter can be blinded to them, just as the participants are.

The thing is that Stephan stipulated that "set" referred to the few images that were targets, and he used another word for the pool of images from which the target set was drawn - so when he said you have to be careful in choosing a set to minimise the chance of displacement, it seemed like he was suggesting that sets be chosen deliberately rather than randomly, which is antithetical to blinding. I was just curious about that apparent contradiction - but maybe he simply misspoke, or he meant something other than deliberate choice (but if so, I have no idea what!).

Russell Brand interviews explains morphic resonance to Rupert Sheldrake: