I'm writing a book about ganzfeld psi work

Hello everyone,

just a quick request. I'm currently writing a book about psi ganzfeld work and I'm keen to avoid yet another retelling of the same debate, just repeating the same names and numbers that you can find on any internet article.

As such, if anyone here has first-hand experience of ganzfeld experiments, or know someone who does, could they drop me a PM? I'd like to ask a few questions.

Thanks

(The book won't be a skeptical take-down of the subject, in case you're wondering.)

I hope you will be as unbiased as possible and cover both pros and cons.  I get tired of people's unwavering certainty on both sides of the fence on these subjects.

I hope you will be as unbiased as possible and cover both pros and cons.  I get tired of people's unwavering certainty on both sides of the fence on these subjects.

Perfectly reasonable comment, Brian. I'm genuinely curious though, how you reconcile that with the certainty of your faith. Does faith get a free pass ? I'm not saying it shouldn't, BTW, I realise it's not an identical comparison.

I hope you will be as unbiased as possible and cover both pros and cons.  I get tired of people's unwavering certainty on both sides of the fence on these subjects.

I aim to be. I don't it to be about the debate, so I'll focus mostly on the people. Some people will think that without conflict, it'll lack narrative drive (and they'd be right - I wouldn't recommend writing a hollywood film this way). 

But I think that parapsychological literature was influenced quite a lot by Dava Sobel's book Longitude, which is a science book that had a good guy and a bad guy and an ending. Skeptics and proponents alike have taken that template and applied it to writing about psi research and I don't think it's a good fit.

Since the ganzfeld effect is blessed with a substantial effect size, you might augment your book with a few personal experiments. If you could arrange to be in ganzfeld mode at specific times, I am sure some people here would be willing to act as senders.

Since the ganzfeld effect is blessed with a substantial effect size, you might augment your book with a few personal experiments. If you could arrange to be in ganzfeld mode at specific times, I am sure some people here would be willing to act as senders.

Yes, I've already written to Northampton University who've put me down as a receiver in a ganzfeld experiment they're running. I'm going in October.

Yes, I've already written to Northampton University who've put me down as a receiver in a ganzfeld experiment they're running. I'm going in October.

That sounds great, assuming they will tell you how well you did in detail. For example, you might find that you would feel more certain about some results rather than others.

Do you know what the target images will be - images of common animals, or very well known politicians might be a good target - they would evoke some emotions. Sequences of digits would be the worst option - although the easiest for them to implement.

My suspicion is that some experimenters may run experiments without much thought to making them work - because they don't think they can work anyway.

That sounds great, assuming they will tell you how well you did in detail. For example, you might find that you would feel more certain about some results rather than others.

Do you know what the target images will be - images of common animals, or very well known politicians might be a good target - they would evoke some emotions. Sequences of digits would be the worst option - although the easiest for them to implement.

My suspicion is that some experimenters may run experiments without much thought to making them work - because they don't think they can work anyway.

Chris Roe is overseeing these experiments, and he's done a few hundred ganzfeld sessions already so I think he'll have thought about how to make them work.

If I understand the protocol correctly, I'm not judging at all. I'll only see the target soon after the session. That's fine by me but I hope they'll tell me if it was a hit or not. 

Don't know what the images might be.

Chris Roe is overseeing these experiments, and he's done a few hundred ganzfeld sessions already so I think he'll have thought about how to make them work.

If I understand the protocol correctly, I'm not judging at all. I'll only see the target soon after the session. That's fine by me but I hope they'll tell me if it was a hit or not. 

Don't know what the images might be.

I'd imagine you'd want to share details for the book, but did you end up participating in the experiments?

I'd imagine you'd want to share details for the book, but did you end up participating in the experiments?

I did. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a hit and I can't say I enjoyed the ganzfeld experience itself. It was too odd for me to get comfortable plus, whenever images would start to form I would blink and they'd vanish. A bit frustrating. Still, I'm glad I did it.