IONS co-study (mostly) fails to find a link between yoga/meditation and psi

[Laird]

Exploring Connections: Yoga, Meditation, and Psychic Abilities

IONS Science Team
August 6, 2025
IONS Blog

The four hypotheses developed by researchers are as follows:

• H1: Forty days of continuous yoga practice (a minimum of 60 minutes daily) affect the precognitive ability of students with different histories of yoga practice.
  
• H2: Meditation influences precognitive accuracy.
  
• H3: More yoga experience is associated with better precognition results.
  
• H4: The demographic characteristics of the participants correlate with their precognitive skills.
  

No statistically significant results were revealed by these tests. However, interesting trends in the data were observed across the four studies.

Researchers found that a short-term yoga practice showed a weak correlation with improved precognitive abilities. Perhaps most interesting is that the post-hoc analysis revealed that participants chose the target image incorrectly more often than chance, which researchers suggest may reflect an unconscious resistance to psi (i.e., psychic abilities). In Study 2, results showed a shift between pre- and post-meditation performance, which suggests improved precognitive ability due to a meditation practice.

When comparing beginners to experienced yoga practitioners (Study 3), scores between the two groups did not differ in a meaningful way. However, in the fourth study, trends were observed regarding education and personality traits. Participants with less formal education or stronger beliefs in psychic phenomena tended to perform better. Certain personality traits—being less dull, more passionate, more extroverted, and more spiritually aware—were also weakly associated with improved results, though the connections remain complex and unclear.

Yet, it can take up to 60 days to even begin to notice any neural network changes that might be generated from meditation practices. That is 'begin' to, so the 40 day program is not even setting up a proper subject to study. Did they not ask the neurologist about the time factor?

The types of meditation are also very different, evidence there is based on multiple studies of brain networks and body chemistry, and the differences produced by various meditation practices that are blatantly obvious. Did they even pick the right one and ensure that the subjects were doing it properly?

If you look at no-talent, no-Psi advanced meditators and compare them to no-talent, no-Psi beginner meditators, of course there won't be any major differences in Psi or abilities. Keep looking for diabetes in healthy people and it will not exist.

Again they are taking people with no apparent skills, no talent in any Psi area, and looking for Psi to magically appear. We know it is mainly very specific and skilled/talented people and not some general population item, so why would they waste time looking at no-talent people?

This reminds me of the study of distant intent and healing, where the only positive results were from the teachers/instructors, and none of the students showed much of any result. When the stats were done, it looks pretty bad unless you get rid of the student failures and apply the study to those who can produce results.

IMHO, we have to find and study those who can produce results, and stop looking for them in average people. This is, in my opinion, the entire reason that studies and parapsychology has become such a difficult and failed area. We have a savant-like condition of special talent showing up in special people, not some global phenomena affecting the entire public.