The Conscious Universe

1. Psi Phenomena: Real Interconnections Beyond Ordinary Senses

The psyche’s attachment to the brain, i.e., its space-time limitation, is no longer as self-evident and incontrovertible as we have hitherto been led to believe.

Beyond Space-Time. Psychic phenomena, or psi, suggest that our minds are not limited by the constraints of space and time, hinting at deep, invisible interconnections among people and between people and objects. These experiences, often dismissed as impossible, challenge the conventional scientific view that the subjective and objective worlds are distinct and separate. Psi phenomena fall into two categories: extrasensory perception (ESP), which includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, and psychokinesis (PK), or mind-matter interaction.

Anomalies and Paradoxes. These phenomena present anomalies that challenge established scientific theories, prompting a reevaluation of our understanding of consciousness. While many dismiss psi as delusionary, the sheer volume of reported experiences across cultures and throughout history suggests that something real is happening. The scientific challenge lies in determining whether these experiences are genuine phenomena or can be explained by conventional psychological and physical factors.

Expanding Consciousness. Understanding psi requires an expanded view of human consciousness, moving beyond the idea of the mind as merely a mechanistic, information-processing bundle of neurons. The evidence suggests that while brain structure and electrochemical activity are undoubtedly related to mental functioning, there is also something else happening, something that transcends the limitations of space and time. This "something else" is what psi research seeks to explore and understand.

2. Scientific Acceptance of Psi Requires Rigorous Evidence

If you feel it, that’s proof enough. You just live in your head too much.

Beyond Personal Belief. While personal experiences and anecdotes can be compelling, they do not provide the hard, trustworthy evidence that causes scientists to accept confidently that a claimed effect is what it appears to be. Science demands empirical data produced in controlled, experimental studies. This shift from subjective belief to objective evidence is crucial for moving beyond old debates and establishing the reality of psi.

The Four Stages of Acceptance. New scientific ideas typically go through four stages: initial rejection as impossible, reluctant concession as possible but uninteresting, recognition as important and pervasive, and finally, acceptance as self-evident. The idea of psychic phenomena is currently in the midst of the difficult transition from the first to the second stage, requiring a rigorous demonstration of its existence through scientific standards.

Shifting Opinions. The most important indication of a shift from Stage 1 to Stage 2 can be seen in the gradually changing attitudes of prominent skeptics. Even staunch critics like the late Carl Sagan have acknowledged that certain claims in the ESP field deserve serious study. This shift is also reflected in the increasing frequency of favorable articles on psi research in well-known scientific journals and the inclusion of psi research in the programs of major scientific conferences.

3. Replication: The Cornerstone of Validating Psi Experiments

I am not interested in the ephemeral—such subjects as the adulteries of dentists. I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.

The Gold Standard. Replication, the ability to independently and repeatedly measure a phenomenon, is universally accepted as one of the most important criteria for scientifically establishing its existence. It serves as a test for stability, ensuring that we are measuring a real effect and not just random variations. Without repeatability, no consensus can be reached, and the existence of the effect remains in doubt.

Challenges to Replication. Despite its importance, replication is often difficult to achieve, especially in the life sciences where the objects of study are open systems that react and change as a result of the experiment itself. This is particularly true for subtle mental skills like ESP, where the inability to reliably produce experimental effects on demand makes it difficult to establish the nature or even the reality of the phenomenon.

Factors Affecting Replication. Several factors can make replication difficult, including nonreplicable phenomena, incomplete knowledge of experimental procedures, stochastic and reactive effects, experimenter effects, sociological factors, psychological factors, statistical factors, and complications in experimental design. Understanding these factors is crucial for evaluating the scientific evidence for psi.

4. Meta-Analysis: Measuring the Replicability of Psi Effects

[Meta-analysis] is going to revolutionize how the sciences … handle data. And it’s going to be the way many arguments will be ended.

Analysis of Analyses. Meta-analysis, a structured technique for exhaustively analyzing a complete body of experiments, provides a way of measuring how much replication has taken place. It draws generalizations from a set of observations about each experiment, allowing us to assess the overall strength of the evidence for a claimed phenomenon.

Combining Data. By combining data from a group of similar experiments, meta-analysis allows us to ask higher-level questions, such as how people perform in general across many experiments. This enables us to develop higher confidence about performance in general without getting bogged down in the specifics of individuals or groups of individuals. The more data, the higher the confidence.

Addressing Criticisms. While meta-analysis has faced criticisms, such as the "apples and oranges" argument and the "file-drawer problem," these concerns can be addressed through careful analysis and the use of appropriate statistical techniques. Meta-analysis provides a more accurate assessment of a body of research than traditional narrative literature reviews, allowing us to reach conclusions that are supported by the data.

5. Telepathy: Direct Communication Between Minds

Before I picked up the phone, I knew it was you.

Feeling at a Distance. Telepathy, the exchange of information between two or more minds without the use of the ordinary senses, is a commonly reported psi experience. While many such experiences can be explained as educated guesses or misinterpreted coincidences, controlled experiments have provided evidence for genuine telepathy.

Early Experiments. Early experimental studies of telepathy included thought-transference tests between distant hypnotized subjects and ESP card tests. These experiments, while often criticized for methodological flaws, provided initial evidence for the existence of telepathic communication.

Dream Telepathy. The dream telepathy experiments conducted at Maimonides Medical Center in the 1960s and 1970s provided further evidence for telepathy. These experiments, which involved a sender attempting to transmit mental images to a dreaming receiver, showed that the receiver's dreams often incorporated elements of the target images. While individual studies had limitations, the combined results of the dreamtelepathy experiments provided strong evidence for telepathy in the dream state.

6. Clairvoyance: Perception at a Distance

Man also possesses a power by which he may see his friends and the circumstances by which they are surrounded, although such persons may be a thousand miles away from him at that time.

Seeing Beyond. Clairvoyance, or remote viewing, is the ability to perceive information from a distance, beyond the reach of the ordinary senses. Unlike telepathy, clairvoyance does not require a sender; the information is obtained directly from a distant or hidden location.

Early Experiments. Early experiments in clairvoyance involved ESP cards, where participants attempted to guess the identity of cards hidden from view. While these experiments provided some evidence for clairvoyance, they were often criticized for methodological flaws.

Modern Remote Viewing. More recent remote-viewing experiments, conducted at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), have employed more rigorous controls and have provided more persuasive evidence for clairvoyance. These experiments, which involved participants describing distant, unknown locations, have shown that some individuals can accurately perceive information beyond the reach of the ordinary senses.

7. Precognition: Seeing Beyond the Arrow of Time

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

Knowing the Future. Precognition, the ability to perceive information about future events that could not be inferred by ordinary means, challenges our conventional understanding of time and causality. While precognitive experiences are fairly common, many scientists consider true precognition to be impossible because it suggests that causation can sometimes "flow backward."

Forced-Choice Tests. Experimental tests of precognition often involve forced-choice designs, where participants attempt to guess which of a fixed number of targets will be selected later. Meta-analyses of these experiments have shown that precognition effects are statistically significant, suggesting that some forms of precognition do exist.

Unconscious Precognition. Recent research has explored the possibility of unconscious precognition, where individuals respond physiologically to future events without being consciously aware of them. These studies, which have measured changes in electrodermal activity and other physiological responses, have provided evidence that the human nervous system can anticipate future events.

8. Psychokinesis: Mind Over Matter

I can’t work there!” screamed Gail. She had just returned from her first day as a psychiatric nurse in the lockup ward of a state mental hospital for the criminally insane.

Mind Influencing Matter. Psychokinesis (PK), or mind-matter interaction, is the ability to mentally influence physical systems. While the idea of mind over matter has been met with skepticism, decades of laboratory experiments have provided evidence that mental intention can affect the behavior of random physical systems.

Dice-Tossing Experiments. Early experiments in psychokinesis involved participants attempting to mentally influence the outcome of dice tosses. Meta-analyses of these experiments have shown that mental intention can indeed affect the fall of dice, suggesting that mind-matter interaction is a real phenomenon.

Random-Number Generators. More recent experiments have used electronic random-number generators (RNGs) as the physical target. These experiments, which involve participants attempting to mentally influence the output of the RNG, have provided further evidence for mind-matter interaction. Meta-analyses of RNG experiments have shown that mental intention can affect the behavior of these random physical systems.

9. Distant Mental Influence on Living Organisms

There are no unnatural or supernatural phenomena, only very large gaps in our knowledge of what is natural, particularly regarding relatively rare occurrences.

Healing at a Distance. Distant mental influence on living organisms, including prayer, spiritual healing, and other forms of distant mental healing, has been reported throughout history. While anecdotal evidence is intriguing, scientific evidence is needed to determine whether these effects are genuine.

Laboratory Experiments. Four decades of laboratory experiments have explored the effects of distant mental influence on living organisms. These experiments, which have involved a variety of outcome measures, have shown that mental intention can affect the physiology and behavior of distant living systems.

The Feeling of Being Stared At. One commonly reported form of distant mental influence is "the feeling of being stared at." Laboratory experiments have shown that focusing on another person from a distance can affect the nervous system of the stared-at person, even when the person is unaware of being stared at.

10. Field Consciousness: The Interconnectedness of Minds

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

Minds Thinking Alike. Field consciousness refers to the idea that when many minds think alike, the state of the world can change. This concept suggests that there is a fundamental interconnectedness among people, and that collective attention can influence physical systems.

Experiments with Mass Events. Experiments have explored field-consciousness effects during mass events, such as the O. J. Simpson verdict, the Academy Awards, and the Olympic Games. These experiments have shown that when groups of people concentrate on a single event, this mental focusing can affect the behavior of random-number generators.

Implications. The existence of field consciousness suggests that the mind is not merely an individual phenomenon but is also part of a larger, interconnected field. This has implications for our understanding of social order, global events, and the nature of consciousness itself.

11. Psi in the Casino: Chance and Intention

I can’t work there!” screamed Gail. She had just returned from her first day as a psychiatric nurse in the lockup ward of a state mental hospital for the criminally insane.

Wishing for a Win. Casinos, where people are highly motivated to win, provide a unique opportunity to study the effects of intention on random systems. While casinos always win in the long run, on rare days they can lose money if several big jackpots are hit on the same day.

Casino Profits and Geomagnetism. Research has examined the daily win-loss ratios for table games and slot machines in casinos, finding evidence of predictable variations in casino profits that are also related to factors associated with psi ability. This suggests that psi may indeed manifest in casinos.

Lottery Games. Similar findings have been observed in state and national lottery games, where fluctuations in payout rates may be mediated by psi. These findings suggest that psi may be a factor in the outcome of mass games of chance.

12. Applications of Psi: From Medicine to Technology

I can’t work there!” screamed Gail. She had just returned from her first day as a psychiatric nurse in the lockup ward of a state mental hospital for the criminally insane.

Practical Uses. Despite the scientific controversy surrounding psi, practical applications of psi can already be found in a variety of fields, including medicine, military, detective work, technology, and business. These applications, while often controversial, suggest that psi may have real-world utility.

Medicine. Medical applications of psi include distant mental healing, prayer, and intuitive diagnosis. While the evidence for these applications is still preliminary, some studies have shown promising results.

Military and Intelligence. Military and intelligence agencies have used remote viewing for a variety of purposes, including gathering information on enemy targets and locating missing persons. While the effectiveness of remote viewing in these applications is debated, some cases have been remarkably accurate.

Last updated: April 13, 2025