◆ SpookStack

* CPYRGHT ; Approved For Release 2000/08/09 : cia-opae-oo7e2Ro00 HAH tp fYS SIE | ED PUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER t 4 349 the corresponding target locations. A long-range experimenta program devoted to the clarification of these issues and involv- ing a number of subjects is under way. The above four experi- ments are the first four carried out under this program. Currently, we have no precise model of this spatial and tem- poral remote-viewing phenomenon. However, models of the universe involving higher order synchronicity or correlation have been proposed by the physicist Pauli and the psychologist Carl Jung [62]. ACAUSALITY. If natural law® were an absolute truth, then of course there could not possibly be any processes that deviate from it. But since causality® is a statistical truth, it holds good only on average and thus leaves room for exceptions which must somehow be experienceable, that is to say, real. I try to regard synchronistic events as acausal exteptions of this kind. They prove to be relatively independent of space and time; they rela- tivize space and time insofar as space presents in principle no ob- stacle to their passage and the sequence of events in time is in- verted so that it looks as if an event which has not yet occurred were causing a perception in the present. We shall see in the next section that such a description, though poetic, has some basis in modern physical theory. V. DISCUSSION It is important to note at the outset that many contempo- rary physicists are of the view that the phenomena that we have been discussing are not at all inconsistent with the framework of physics as currently understood. In this emerg- ing view, the often-held belief that observations of this type are incompatible with known laws in principle is erroneous, such a concept being based on the naive realism prevalent before the development of modern quantum theory and information theory. One hypothesis, put forward by I. M. Kogan of the USSR, is that information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves in the 300-1000-km region [37]- [40]. Experimental support for the hypothesis is claimed on the basis of slower than inverse square attenuation, com- patible with source-percipient distances lying in the induc- tion field range as opposed to the radiation field range; ob- served low bit rates (0.005-0.1 bit/s) compatible with the information carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffec- tiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator; and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically gener- ated currents yielding results compatible with observed signal- to-noise ratios. M. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Laurentian Uni- versity, Toronto, Canada, has narrowed the ELF hypothesis to the suggestion that the 7.8-Hz “Shumann waves’ and their harmonics propagating along the earth-ionosphere waveguide duct may be responsible. Such an hypothesis is compatible with driving by brain-wave currents and leads to certain other hypotheses such as asymmetry between east-west and west- east propagation, preferred experimental times (midnight-4 A.M.), and expected negative correlation between success and the U index (a measure of geomagnetic disturbance throughout the world). Persinger claims initial support for these factors on the basis of a literature search [63], [64]. . On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF interpretation as a blanket hypothesis are the following: a) ap- 5 As usually understood. real-time ‘ F : . detail to require a channel capacity in all probability greater than that allowed by a conventional modulation of an ELF signal; b) lack of a proposed mechanism for coding and decod- ing the information onto the proposed ELF carrier; and c) ap- parent precognition data. The hypothesis must nonetheless re- main open at this stage of research, since it is conceivable that counterindication a) may eventually be circumvented on the basis that the apparent high bit rate results from a mixture of low bit rate input and high bit rate “filling in the blanks” from imagination; counterindication b) is common to a number of normal perceptual tasks and may therefore simply reflect a lack of sophistication on our part with regard to perceptual functioning [65]; and counterindication c) may be accom- modated by an ELF hypothesis if advanced waves as well as retarded waves are admitted [66], [67]. Experimentation to determine whether the ELF hypothesis is viable can be carried out by the use of ELF sources as targets, by the study of para- metric dependence on propagational directions and diurnal timing, and by the exploration of interference effects caused by creation of a high-intensity ELF environment during ex- perimentation, al! of which are under consideration in our lab- oratory and elsewhere. Some physicists believe that the reconciliation of observed paranormal functioning with modern theory may take place at a more fundamental level—namely, at the level of the founda- tions of quantum theory. There is a continuing dialog, for example, on the proper interpretation of the effect of an ob- server (consciousness) on experimental measurement [68], and there is considerable current interest in the implications for our notions of ordering in time and space brought on by the observation [69], [70] of nonlocal correlation or “‘quan- tum interconnectedness” (to use Bohm’s term [71]) of distant parts of quantum systems of macroscopic dimensions. The latter, Bell’s theorem [72], emphasizes that “no theory of reality compatible with quantum theory can require spatially separated events to be independent” [73], but must permit interconnectedness of distant events in a manner that is con- trary to ordinary experience [74]-[75]. This prediction has been experimentally tested and confirmed in the recent experiments of, for example, Freedman and Clauser [69], [70]. E, H, Walker and O. Costa de Beauregard, independently proposing theories of paranormal functioning based on quan- tum concepts, argue that observer effects open the door to the possibility of nontrivial coupling between consciousness and the environment and that the nonlocality principle permits such coupling to transcend spatial and temporal barriers [76], [77]. Apparent “‘time reversibility”—that is, effects (e.g., observa- tions) apparently preceding causes (e.g,, events)—though con- ceptually difficult at first glance, may be the easiest of appar- ent paranormal phenomena to assimilate within the current theoretical structure of our world view. In addition to the familiar retarded potential solutions f(t - r/c), it is well known that the equations of, for example, the electromagnetic field admit of advanced potential solutions f(t + r/c)—solutions that would appear to imply a reversal of cause and effect. Such solutions are conventionally discarded as not corresponding to any observable physical event. One is cautioned, however, by statements such as that of Stratton in his basic text on electro- magnetic theory [78]. Approved For Release 2000/08/09 : CIA-RDP96-00792R00080p FANG 7 S Si Fj ED