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At the cutting edge of paranormal research
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 Special report by Roy Stemman
We didn’t know each other and we didn’t know what was about to happen, but those of us who volunteered to participate in Rupert Sheldrake’s one-day workshop at his Hampstead, north London, home on 17 November knew it would be fascinating. And we weren’t disappointed.
What’s more, we soon learned that we were going to be doing things – paranormally speaking – that had never been done before with a group of people. We were at the cutting edge of parapsychological research, Sheldrake told us, perhaps partly tongue-in-cheek, for this was almost virgin territory. “What we are doing today is something that’s never been done before,” he pointed out.
The biochemist and parapsychologist, who is world-famous for his theory of morphic resonance, has conducted various experiments with individuals to test the feasibility of measuring different human “senses” and was now eager to try them with a larger group of people. Assisting him was Thilo Hinterberger (above, with two subjects) from Northampton University – “probably the biggest parapsychology unit in the world” – equipped with a laptop and galvanic skin response (lie detector) clips to monitor and record physiological changes in some of the subjects.
 THE SENSE OF BEING STARED AT. It is reported that 90 per cent of people have experienced this effect: either looking at the back of someone’s head and having them turn suddenly to stare back, or turning round to see someone is looking at them from behind. If our attention resides in our heads, this shouldn’t happen. But if our minds extend beyond our physical selves, just as mobile phones and magnets have far-reaching fields, then such interaction would be possible.
Tests with individuals acting as subject and starer have produced significant results for some researchers. Sheldrake (left) was now keen to see if the use of a large group of starers – there were around 20 of us – could magnify the effect. Two subjects – A and B – were selected and blindfolded and then we were shown either an A or a B card, in accordance with a randomly-generated list, to determine which person we should stare at (top picture).
Sheldrake believes that the sense of being stared at could well be a survival instinct and there is evidence that staring at sleeping animals can wake them. Sheldrake and his son have conducted such tests with sleeping snakes, and Thilo has been experimenting with wood lice.
Our test was with humans and would need to be done many times, with other groups, before it could be regarded as statistically significant. But impressive statistics are already available using just two people.
Since 1985, the Amsterdam Science Museum has allowed visitors to participate in the am-I-being-stared-at experiment, based on Sheldrake’s work, with one subject and one starer doing 30 trials before vacating their seats for the next couple.
By 2002, more than 18,700 couples had taken part and the results were a staggering 10 to the power of 376 against them being produced by chance. It’s an on-going experiment and the number of subjects who have participated is now over 20,000, making this the largest and longest-running paranormal research project ever conducted.
 THE SENSE OF BEING LISTENED TO. Sheldrake believes it may also be possible for us to know if we are being listened to. To put this theory to the test, a handful of us went up to his first-floor library, taking it in turns to pick up the phone and call an extension in the room where the workshop was being conducted, under Thilo Hinterberger’s supervision. A recorded message told us to speak after the tone.
But thanks to a device fitted to the downstairs phone, some of our messages were broadcast to the group while others would fall on silent ears. What we had to decide, individually, was whether our spoken message had been listened to, or not. Thilo recorded our impressions.
Sheldrake had previously achieved encouraging results with people he knew well. But no significance could be read into our group session. There were some interesting lessons to be learned, however, about the procedures and these could result in the experiment being refined before it is tried more extensively. Unlike the staring experiments, it is something that can be tested over long distances.
The most likely paranormal explanation for these two experiments is telepathy: mind-to-mind communication. But an alternative, paranormal explanation is that the staring tests are a manifestation of Sheldrake’s theoretical morphic field. When staring at a person, our morphic field, if it exists, could extend to them and interact with their morphic field, causing them to turn around.
 To explore whether such morphic “interference” is possible, Sheldrake and Hinterberger asked us to take part in another experiment. We divided into pairs and spread around Sheldrake’s home, finding doorways or corners where we could stand in such a way that we couldn’t see each other, but a valuable object could be positioned to be visible to both of us.
Then, following a randomly-generated list of “Yes” or “No” options, the person nominated as the non-starer would either look at the object, or look away, when a signal was given. The other person stared at the object all the time and had to determine whether his or her partner was looking at it or not. At the end of 20 trials, we switched roles, repeating the procedure with a different random list.
There was no overall significance in the results, and even if there had been it would be necessary to repeat the experiment many more times to be sure a paranormal effect was occurring.
A variation of this idea was then tried, using four objects, labelled A, B, C and D, and three people (detectors) who stood outside the door looking at them, with the rest of the group, sitting out of view, being guided as to which object they should stare at. Each detector recorded which object they believed was being looked at.
Again, the results were not above chance. But one of those outside the door asked to examine the results more closely at the end of the workshop, discovering a remarkable effect that was not expected. Although they were guessing incorrectly, on almost every guess at least two of the three – and sometimes all three – were making the same wrong guess.
 Just what that means will be for Sheldrake and Hinterberger to decide, particularly if they encounter the same effect in future experiments and having ruled out the possibility that one or more of the detectors cannot see and copy the decisions made by partners.
The workshop participants came from all walks of life, driven by a desire to learn more about Sheldrake’s theories and to play a role, however small, in helping him explore them further.
DO TRY THIS AT HOME: The good news is that anyone, anywhere in the world, can also try many of them, without needing to attend a workshop. It’s a case, says Sheldrake, of “Do try this at home”. He has even devised telepathy tests involving the telephone, e-mails, and mobile phone texting. The details of these can be found on Rupert Sheldrake’s website.
Thilo Hinterberger and his parapsychological colleagues at Northampton are also actively involved in telepathy tests which require the involvement of close partners or friends – one in Northampton and the other in Tübingen, Germany (travel and accommodation expenses paid) to see whether looking at emotionally-charged images produces physiological effects in the partner (see Northampton website).
Life and Soul Magazine, which will be launched in association with www.ParanormalReview.com early in 2007, will take an in-depth look at Dr Rupert Sheldrake’s theories and experiments. To request notification of its publication, click here.
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Posted on Saturday, November 25, 2006
Category: Paranormal
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