Journal of Scientific Exploration (OBE)

Is1JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION
A Publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration
Volume 3, Number 1 1989
CONTENTS
Page
Invited Essays
1 Arguments Over Anomalies: 11. Polemics Henry H. Bauer
) 15 Anomalies: Analysis and Aesthetics Robert G. Jahn

Research Articles
27 Trends in the study of Out-of-Body Experiences: Carlos S. Alvarado

An Overview of Developments Since the
Nineteenth Century
43 A Methodology for the Objective Study of William Braud

I Transpersonal Imagery Marilyn Schlitz
65 Experiments Investigating the Influence of Intention Dean Radin

on Random and Pseudorandom Events Jessica Utts
81 A Case of the Possession Type in India With Ian Stevenson

Evidence of Paranormal Knowledge Satwant Pasricha
I Nicholas McClean-Rice
Indexed in CABS ISSN 0892-3310

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Esi JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION
Volume 3, Number 2 1989
CONTENTS
I Page
I Invited Essay
1 103 New Ideas in Science Thomas Gold

Research Articles
113 Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica Richard F. Haines
Jacques F. Vallee
133 A Replication Study: Three Cases of Children in Antonia Mills

Northern India Who Are Said to Remember a
Previous Life
185 Searching for "Signatures" in Anomalous Human- Dean I. Radin

Machine Interaction Data: A Neural Network
Approach
20 1 A Case of Severe Birth Defects Possibly Due to Ian Stevenson

Cursing
Letter to the Editor
213 Comments on Slanger's "Internal Clock" C. M. Pleass
Book Review
I 2 17 The Relativity Question, by Ian McCausland Henry H. Bauer
I List of Contents and Author Index

Volume 3, 1989
i Indexed in CABS ISSN 0892-3310

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M JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION
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INVITED ESSAY
Arguments Over Anomalies: 11. Polemics
HENRY H. BAUER
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Abstract-Arguments over different anomalies have common elements.

An awareness of those commonalities can be useful in considering the
possible reality of a particular anomaly. As in all arguments, beliefs and not
facts are at issue; but the participants do not recognize that, and so red
henings abound and opponents are not persuaded. Again as in all disputes,
the longer the disagreement persists, the more polarized the issue becomes,
which further encourages the antagonists to become preoccupied with irre-
levancies. Within science, disputes are to some degree constrained by the
existence of a widely shared paradigm and by widely accepted conventions,
supported by entrenched institutions and by consensus over how and when
disputes become settled; but arguments over anomalies are not so con-
strained: they are messy and may continue long after they-on purely
epistemic grounds-"should". Insofar as arguments over anomalies take
place in the public domain, they involve not only proponents and oppo-
nents but also pundits and an audience; however, a purported pundit may
behave more like a disbeliever (or, more rarely, like a proponent). Some
features of these arguments result from the fact that the believers are
usually amateurs (though they commonly include a few maverick experts
in the presumptively relevant fields of mainstream science). Although most
of the experts tend to be disbelievers or at least non-believers in a given
anomaly, the converse is by no means true-most of the disbelievers have
little or no expertise in related areas, and they may not even be particularly
knowledgeable about the given anomaly. Typically, both sides claim that
the evidence is already conclusive when-virtually by definition-it is evi-
dently not. Believers tend to close ranks, even with quite unwelcome bed-
fellows, for fear that their subject will seem even less respectable if the
existence of frauds or hoaxes or incompetence becomes widely known; and
that enhances the tendency for outsiders to view the believers as unani-
mous on all major points, which is anything but true. Both sides (and also
the pundits) typically appeal to the authority of science; and typically they
misunderstand the nature of science. Also characteristic of these arguments
is ignorance of matters that (but only by hindsight) are highly relevant.
Introduction
If one's interest is in the truth about a given anomaly, is there any reason
why one would take an interest in what may be common with other anoma-
lies? Is not the possible reality of a Loch Ness Monster quite unrelated to the
possible reality of a Bigfoot, let alone to the possible reality of clairvoy-
ance, say?
2 H. H. Bauer
Quite generally, recognition of commonalities can deepen one's under-
standing of singularities. In chemistry, for example, an appreciation of the
periodic law provided firm ground for deciding whether a claimed new
element was real or only a pseudo-element, for predicting the existence of
yet undiscovered elements, for understanding chemical behavior and
atomic structure: knowing what is common to elements results also in a
deeper understanding of individual elements. So too can knowledge of what
is common among anomalies help in the study of any given anomalous
claim. The study of anomalies as a class was dubbed by Wescott (1980)
"anomalistics"; but this seemingly useful term has not come into general
usage. A number of important generalizations within anomalistics have
been ventured, notably by Truzzi (1977, 1987) and Westrum (1976, 1978
[with Truzzi], 1982).
Arguments over anomalies have in common that they are controversial
(Bauer, 1988); and they exemplify misunderstanding of scientific activity
and certain typical illogicalities.
In "scientifically exploring" anomalous phenomena, it is well to recog-
nize that controversiality has different consequences in these matters than in
the intra-scientific disputes with which scientists are familiar. For instance,
in science there is always tacit agreement that any matter will ultimately be
settled when enough of Nature's facts become understood, and so there can
often be a consensus to leave the matter undecided until then; whereas with
anomalous phenomena one finds both sides arguing that the crucial facts are
already in. In science, resolving controversial issues involves chiefly sub-
stantive matters of method and theory and data; over anomalies, resolving
the issues means chiefly or primarily disentangling arguments. In science,
the relevant data are accessible to all, whereas with anomalies one often has
to be content with the hearsay of others about the data that are claimed to
exist (or to have once existed). In science, the experts are readily identified
and are (within their specific specialties) generally trustworthy, whereas with
anomalies it is never obvious who is expert, and some of the most knowl-
edgeable about a given matter may be quite untrustworthy and not even
particularly competent in their knowledge.
Arguments in General
Beliefs, not Facts are at Issue

Arguments are over differences in belief but are carried on as though they
were over facts. Arguments are attempts to persuade people to change their
opinions, but the protagonists typically seem not to understand what must
happen if beliefs are to change. Most of us know little about how human
beings acquire beliefs or about what causes us to maintain or to change
beliefs once we have them. We tend to assume that we believe a thing
because it is true and we tend further to assume that the truth of the matter is
Arguments over anomalies 3
convincingly demonstrated by looking at the facts. Consequently we cannot
comprehend how other people can fail to share our own convictions.
Forming Beliefs
In actuality, however, our beliefs are formed under a variety of influences.
At first, we are enormously influenced by parents, peers, and teachers, and
we act and react out of emotion rather than intellect; only after a time do we
learn to become somewhat analytical and critical, to choose opinions for
ourselves among the available alternatives or to generate genuinely individ-
ual ones. Thus at first we typically follow our parents' and our society's
religious and political and social inclinations-or we reject them and em-
brace diametrically opposite views; only later and only occasionally do we
evolve significantly individual opinions through judicious thought. So too
in formal and higher education, we begin by accepting what the instructors
and the texts say and only later become able to judge and to investigate
matters for ourselves. (And even then we usually maintain to some degree
the biases of those with whom we learned: that is why, for instance, one can
identify research traditions associated with particular laboratories or emi-
nent individuals, and why scientific genealogies are constructed and are
instructive.)
Beliefs and Evidence

Since each of us grows and learns under a unique set of circumstances, we
become predisposed to find plausible different things, or a given thing to
different degrees. Each of us forms opinions on specific issues through some
interplay between individual predispositions and the available evidence;
since the predispositions vary, we reach different conclusions on the basis of
the same evidence. Yet, because we harbor the illusion that our opinions are
formed by the evidence, we argue as though only the evidence were at issue;
simply because we happen to believe, we assume that we have only to make
the evidence clear whereupon others will adopt the same belief. Therefore
arguments typically focus overtly or apparently on the evidence; yet that is
only one of the factors that influences belief and often not the decisive one.
That has important consequences. For participants, it means that they
usually argue ineffectively: to alter the antagonists' opinion, it would need to
be shown that the evidence as seen in the light of their own prejudices can
lead to our conclusion; or that their prejudices are inappropriate in this
instance; or that their prejudices should altogether be altered (and none of
those would be easy, of course). For observers or analysts of arguments, it is
necessary to look not only at the purported evidence but also to identify the
biases that inform the opposing sides; without that, it may not even be
possible to determine what the actual evidence is.
In considering the available evidence we usually fail to make the crucially
important distinction between weight of evidence adequate to support one's
4 H. H. Bauer
own belief and weight of evidence adequate to convince others. Since pre-
conceptions vary, estimates of plausibility and probability also vary: what
seems likely to some seems quite unlikely to others-for example that
human behavior is genetically controlled, or that God exists, or that acu-
puncture could work. When something occurs that seems to us plausible, we
accept it even on quite slender evidence (or actually no evidence at all, for
example the pre-1956 belief that parity would be conserved [Bernstein,
1967, p. 521); when however a thing seems implausible to us, we demand a
mass of proof before accepting it and may even then remain unconvinced,
as for example those who still hold that the Earth has existed for only some
thousands rather than billions of years. So two people can look at the same
evidence and reach opposite conclusions because their initial estimates of
probability differed; even more to be emphasized, they can disagree over
whether the evidence is slender or compelling, superficially an "objective"
point over which antagonists ought easily to be able to agree.
On the whole, those who accept the reality of an anomaly (the "be-
lievers") and those who do not (the "disbelievers" or "debunkers") have
characteristically different preconceptions: for instance, the believers are
somewhat predisposed to doubt the conventional wisdom whereas the de-
bunkers tend to feel (0ver)confident that the conventional scientific wisdom
is correct. In well-known consequence, believers tend to judge compelling
an array of evidence that others find less than compelling; whereas de-
bunkers tend to dismiss entirely an array of evidence that others find at least
suggestive.
To make sense of these arguments, one needs to realize that the antago-
nists are always to a certain extent talking past one another: the manifest
issue may be a proximate cause of the argument, but the real cause is a
different set of preconceptions; the prime mover in a dispute is often a clash
of ideologies, a struggle for power, or the like. Thus two siblings are not
concerned fundamentally with the toy over which they seem to be fighting
but rather with their relative status within the family-no matter what the
toy or the issue, they are likely to find themselves in dispute; again, strikes by
militant unions may be less about working conditions (economics, the
manifest issue) and more about the class struggle-no matter what the
wages and benefits and working conditions happen to be, there will be
dispute about them. Similarly one can often predict what attitude a given
person will take toward anything to do with anomalies: there are inveterate
believers and inveterate debunkers.
The influence of preconception concerning anomalies was recently illus-
trated for this author in the reviewing of his book, The Enigma of Loch
Ness: Making Sense of a Mystery (Bauer, 1986), which is explicitly an
examination of the controversy and not an argument that these creatures do
exist or that they do not exist. Reviewers with no great preconceptions
(Atlantic, 1987; Coburn, 1987; Gragg, 1987; Kirkus Reviews, 1986; Martin,
1987; McMahon, 1987; Oldberg, 1986; Snowy Egret, 1987; Stein, 1987;
Williamson, 1987) commented on the impartiality of the discussion as an

analysis of the controversy; but believers in UFOs thought they found dis-
paragement of the believers' viewpoint (Clark, 1987; Earley, 1987) while
inveterate debunkers (Kelly, 1987) were offended by the author's admission
that in his personal opinion there are strange, large creatures in Loch Ness.
For all these reasons, an observer rarely finds the antagonists' arguments
to clarify an issue: the antagonists are primarily concerned to make their
point, to win the argument, to win converts, even when they claim to be
attempting clarification-a claim they may quite honestly believe. Again,
this is why arguments are replete with what are evidently to observers (but
not to the participants) red herrings, non sequitur, illogicalities of all sorts,
arguments ad horninern.
Polarization
Characteristically, arguments become entrenched and polarization grows
rather than lessens as time goes by. The nominal issue becomes spoken of
increasingly in terms of "either-or", and the antagonists come to feel that
those who are not explicitly for them are assuredly against them. Every
small detail becomes controversial, and no one will yield an inch lest that
lead further; thus in the Velikovsky affair not only did the antagonists go to
specious lengths to avoid acknowledging errors, they made much of such
trivialities as their opponents' mistakes in punctuation when giving quotes
(Bauer, 1984a, pp. 196- 198,241-242). Arguments may begin as attempts to
establish the objective soundness of (two opposing) positions; but after a
while, the antagonists' purpose becomes to discredit their opposition.
The tendency to polarization can seriously obfuscate significant points
through the creation of false dichotomies (whose falsity of course is not
evident to the disputants). In cryptozoology there is a characteristic argu-
ment about folkloric references: are they symbolic and mythic or are they
founded on snippets of information about real animals? That is a false
dichotomy, for it is patently possible for real animals to have symbolic and
mythic attributes, the Biblical serpent for example. (Indeed, as Bayanov
[I9821 has pointed out, ape-men or wild-men would almost inevitably, if
they exist, become incorporated into folklore, legend, and myth: their ab-
sence from folklore would speak against their actual existence.) Similarly
with the Loch Ness monster, it is often asked, is the monster real or is it an
invention of journalists and tourist entrepreneurs? Again a false dichotomy,
for both may be true: if such rarely seen creatures exist, entrepreneurs would
surely seek to exploit them, and some might actually come to believe that
they had invented them (Bauer, 1986, pp. 155-156).
Committed believers or debunkers may not even be willing to acknowl-
edge that polarization and false dichotomies are undesirable. Thus Gardner
(1983a; 1983b, p. 55) argues for making sharply polar distinctions between
science and pseudo-science: that night slowly gives way to day does not
6 H. H. Bauer
vitiate the distinction between night and day, he says, and that unorthodox-
yet-legitimate science and pseudo-science are but extremes of a continuum
still leaves it possible legitimately to call some things pseudo-science. This
might well be called the Gardner non-sequitur (by analogy with the Fulton
non-sequitur [Gruenberger, 19641): there is never significant disagreement
over whether it is night or day, but there is typically disagreement over what
can legitimately be called pseudo-science. That extreme instances of rank
pseudo-science do exist cannot validate the labeling as pseudo-science of
matters that are highly and contemporaneously controversial and that there-
fore seem only to some people and not to others to be pseudo-science
(Bauer, 1984b); it is as though someone were to comment on the beauty of
the evening twilight and Gardner would seek to brush that aside by insisting
that it is already night-time-that Gardner can see things as black or white
hardly excludes others from perceiving greys. The Gardner non-sequitur is
common in disputes over anomalies (though it is not so commonly de-
fended): one side alleges that the other fails to accept some unexceptionable
generality, whereas the quarrel actually is over whether that generality can
be applied to the specific instance at hand. Steuart Campbell (1988), for
instance, accuses others of not invoking Occam's Razor when the difference
of opinion is actually over which of the several explanations really is the
simplest one.
The degree of polarization that occurs has been nicely illustrated by Howe
(1 983) for the case of parapsychology; the fervent skeptic cites only skeptical
sources; asserts parapsychology to be a pseudo-science; considers only nor-
mal explanations or resorts to personal attack, ridicule, or evasion ("we will
never know the answer"); asserts that the acceptance of psychic phenomena
will let loose a tide of irrationality that will lead to a collapse of society;
applauds the description of the typical fervent proponent but is irate over
this characterization of the fervent skeptic; has more dogmatic humanist or
philosophic beliefs than the average humanist or philosopher. On the other
hand, the fervent proponent cites only psychic or parapsychologicalsources;
asserts parapsychology to be a radically new science; considers only para-
normal explanations without first evaluating normal ones; asserts that ac-
ceptance of psychic phenomena will revolutionize society for the better;
applauds the description of the typical fervent skeptic but is irate over this
characterization of the fervent proponent; has more dogmatic religious be-
liefs than the average religious person.
The fierceness of an argument does not necessarily parallel the degree to
which the opposing viewpoints differ; indeed, the most spirited battles take
place between individuals or groups whose views differ relatively little, a
phenomenon classically termed "odium theologicum" (I. J. Good, personal
communication, June 1 1, 1986) since the Church has so often been more
tolerant of heathens than of schismatics; so too, most homicides in the U.S.
are committed by relatives or friends; Australian or British travelers tend to
be more critical of what they encounter in the U.S. than of what they
experience in Asia; the Soviet Union finds it easier to strike accommoda-
tions with the West than with China or its Eastern European fellow-trav-
elers; the Velikovskian journal Kronos will at least argue with those who
reject Velikovsky's ideas entirely but treats as beneath contempt and ignores
Velikovskian deviationists. Once this tendency has been recognized, for
passions to be exacerbated by closeness rather than by distance, it can be
readily enough understood. One tends to assume implicitly that another
person's similar views are actually identical views, and when the recognition
comes that this is not so, the disappointment can be shocking and can
produce a violent reaction. Moreover, those who are closest can thereby
seem the most threatening: given that our differences are so slight, might
that not make it very easy for them to syphon support and supporters away
from us? And perhaps, as we compare our opinions with only slightly dif-
ferent ones, there comes the fear that we ourselves might be mistaken-for it
is surely easier to entertain the notion that we may be slightly wrong than
that we might be grossly wrong (yet it is still unpalatable to admit it).
In the rare cases when true believers (Hoffer, 195 1) do happen to recog-
nize their error, they do not then adopt a more balanced or judicious stance,
rather they typically go to the other extreme. Arthur Koestler's disillusion-
ment with Communism left him implacably anti-Communist; Whittaker
Chambers coupled that shift with conversion from atheism to Catholicism.
Maurice Burton gave credence to the Loch Ness monsters for nearly three
decades and then became a determined debunker; Razdan and Kielar
(1984-1985) became injudiciously critical after their own search for the
monster was unsuccessful. The switch from believer to debunker is easier
than from either of those stances to uncommitted, because the extreme
positions are so similar to one another, psychologically and (i1)logically.
Thus the believers and the debunkers are equally dogmatic-for example,
that the scientific method exists and that they know precisely what it is; and
they can be incisively logical about their opponents' fallacies while them-
selves committing similar ones (Bauer, 1984a, pp. 223-250). Debunkers, in
fact, just as much as believers belong to the type described by Hoffer (195 1).
Arguments Within Scientific Disciplines

Though the points just made apply to all arguments, including contro-
versies within science ("intra-scientific" ones) as well as those about claimed
anomalies, there are quite important differences in degree. The conventions
of science serve to moderate the non-rational aspects of intra-scientific dis-
pute, whereas arguments over anomalies are not so constrained.
In intra-scientific disputes, there is less opportunity for covert ideologies
to influence the general course and particular events of a controversy. Most
such arguments concern quite well-defined, specific issues: a particular ob-
servation or set of results, the efficacy of an instrument or method, the fit of
8 H. H. Bauer
digm. All the disputants approach the manifest issue in much the same way,
with much the same biases and preconceptions about them and with much
the same goals: to resolve the dispute and thereby get past that impediment
to further progress. Moreover, continuing and explicit lip-service is paid to
the ideals of objectivity and empiricism, and consequently there is more
opportunity for logic and data actually to be taken seriously.
Scientists are trained not only to discover but also to find sponsors for
their work and to publish their discoveries; and getting support and getting
published means impressing and convincing others. Through early training,
therefore, scientists learn something of the difference between personally
holding beliefs and convincing others; they learn to be aware of and to
deploy themselves the criteria that others will apply to their proposals and
manuscripts. So scientists are trained to become their own critics and learn
to become relatively logical and empirical in their work; within science,
convincing oneself becomes not so different from convincing others.
Pieces of science ultimately must pass the test of Nature itself. Scientists
take enormous risks if personal or ideologic motives lead them into logical
fallacy or into ignoring or fudging data; at any time the honest work of
others, in the same or in a similar field, could expose them as incompetent
or dishonest and their whole career could be ruined. Adherence to the ideals
of science, to the extent humanly possible, is for scientists a plain matter of
self-interest.
Arguments within science, then, are somewhat less at the mercy of human
vagaries than are other arguments. When scientists become involved in
disputes about anomalies (or in other public arguments, or in arguments
about politics or social questions), their experience of intra-scientific dispute
can prove to be a handicap: they are not aware that there exists no shared
paradigm, and so they are not prepared for the degree to which the disputes
are actually about other things than the nominal question, they are not
accustomed to disputes that are so much over beliefs and so little over facts;
they do not understand why or how there can be such a multitude of
illogicalities and red herrings. And so scientists are often ineffective in such
arguments: over creationism, over Velikovsky, over Star Wars.
It is not being suggested that intra-scientific disputes are less intemperate
or raucous than others, only that within science the arguments stick more
closely to the manifest issues and are quickly settled once the relevant facts
are in. By contrast, arguments over anomalies can persist, through the activ-
ities of small groups of proponents, long after the objective facts are in: to
take an extreme case, there still exist Flat-Earth societies. Outside the disci-
plines, there is no system or authority to settle intellectual disagreements
and to keep them settled.
Public Arguments
In public arguments as in all others one finds ideologic differences behind
the manifest issues, one finds the antagonists seeking to win the argument
rather than to clarify the matter, and one finds progressively greater polar-
ization over time. In public debates, though, one's ego may seem even more
at risk than in private argument and saving face may become even more
essential. It would make sense, therefore, for antagonists in public debate to
look for ways by which it might become easier and less self-threatening for
their opponents to recant; but examples of that seem to be rare. Thus
Velikovsky was ridiculed harshly, misrepresented sloppily, paid scant re-
spect; and so-if for no other reason-Velikovsky's critics were quite inef-
fective in swaying Velikovsky or his supporters.
Speaking to an Audience
A partial explanation for such apparently inept behavior as that of Veli-
kovsky's critics is that they were not in fact trying to persuade Velikovsky or
his followers; the aim was to discredit Velikovsky in the eyes of the public. In
all arguments there are proponents and opponents, but in public arguments
there is also an audience to be reckoned with. Most commonly, what the
disputants say is actually addressed to that audience, the public, even when
they may seem to be addressing one another; and things are said differently
-or different things are said-than when it is the opponents who are being
directly addressed. Sometimes, to be sure, the disputants do substantively
address one another; but at other times again they appear to be talking only
to themselves. Thus the typical publication by believers (for example,
MUFON Journal, Kronos, Nessletter) or by debunkers (for example, Skep-
tical Inquirer) serves only the purpose of speaking to the already converted:
those writings, as also conferences arranged by such groups, are better un-
derstood as rituals of self-motivation and self-reassurance than as attempts
to make a case that might persuade opponents or the general public, let
alone as attempts to clarify the substantive issue. For example, Skeptical
Inquirer has published several debunking pieces about the Loch Ness con-
troversy but was not interested in a survey of the strongest evidence, giving
as reason that the magazine's purpose is not to consider what the best
evidence for anomalous claims might be but to argue against them (Ken-
drick Frazier, personal communications, February 26 and October 6, 1984).
Pundits
In public debates one also encounters another type of role besides those of
proponent and opponent: that of the observer or pundit, who takes an active
part in the argument as an explicator of the issues or as a mediator between
the extremes: ideally, the pundit serves to educate the public and to help it
reach the truth of the matter. But pundits have their own opinions too, and
those are likely to be more to one side of the issue than the other, and so it is
by no means always easy to distinguish pundits from disputants-as for
instance with the social scientists and humanists who entered the Veli-
kovsky debate in the 1960s (Bauer, 1984a, pp. 52-56).
10 H. H. Bauer
A common ploy by debunkers masquerading as uncommitted observers
is to declare that educating the public is the same as having the public accept
the debunking view: for example, in several instances the only criterion used
by debunkers to judge whether students had become critically minded was
whether they had lost their willingness to contemplate the possible reality of
certain anomalies (Bainbridge, 1988; Blackmore, 1984-1 985; Lee, 1985).
That illustrates the fact that in intellectual disputes (as generally in demo-
cratic societies) lip-service only is paid to the notion that all are entitled to
their own opinions: in practice, on any given issue one finds few people
actually content to have others believe differently from themselves. Thus
liberals tend to doubt that free speech for fascists or creationists is really
good for society-or, what has the same effect, liberals become very agitated
when widespread credence is given to, say, creationist views. Again, science
popularizers tend to doubt that publishers should put out books like those of
Charles Berlitz or Eric von Daniken. Liberals, scientists, and science writers
profess to believe that aberrant views ("'error") would disappear if only the
public were well enough educated, in particular in science; yet they usually
take part in public dispute not as educators and uncommitted explicators
but as proponents of specific views, and they tend to view the public as
"educated" only to the extent that it accepts their opinions.
Arguments About Anomalies
Controversies over anomalies are often public arguments, so what has just
been said applies here too; but one can be more specific about who are the
adversaries, about typical overstatements, and about the manner in which
science is brought into the dispute.
The Disputants
Those who push the reality of an anomaly are typically amateurs or
laymen with respect to the most apparently relevant disciplines, as are some
of the most vociferous of their opponents. The experts and professionals are
almost all skeptics or opponents or debunkers: thus physicians typically do
not practice faith-healing or homeopathy or acupuncture (although some
do); nor are many psychologists active in parapsychology (though a few are).
That many of the proponents of an anomaly are amateurs has corollaries
that make widespread acceptance of the anomaly more difficult (Bauer,
1984a, pp. 189-193; 1986, pp. 77-98): their work is not coordinated, many
are less than competent, their reports are not rigorously refereed, the litera-
ture is inchoate; studying an anomaly is not doing science, and the investi-
gations cannot realistically be judged as pieces of science.
Although most of the experts are skeptics or debunkers, one usually finds
a few maverick professionals who espouse an anomaly or call for further
investigation of it: Wilhelm Reich has followers among physicians and so-
cia1 scientists, Hynek was an astronomer and ufologist, Grover Krantz is an

anthropologist who believes Bigfoot to be real; Velikovskians counted some
physicists among their number; biologists Roy Mackal and Denys Tucker
(among others) believe that Loch Ness monsters are real. There is almost
always a distribution of belief among the experts about the reality of an
anomaly; and that is one reason why anomalies cannot be dismissed simply
by reliance on intellectual authority-that authority, insofar as it exists, is
not sufficiently consensual on the matter.
I
Overstating the Cases
Disputants in all arguments tend to overstate their cases. With anomalies,
the claimants typically say, "It is so", when it should be patently obvious
that the evidence is insufficient to convince many intelligent, educated,
appopriately qualified people, among them most of the professional experts.
It would be more palatable to the pundits and even to the experts if the
proponents were merely to say, "There is good evidence for this, it is not
unreasonable to entertain the possibility". Here is an instance where the
distinction between personal belief and demonstrable proof cries out to be
applied: it may often be quite reasonable for the proponents to believe the
anomaly to be real, but that does not necessarily make it reasonable for
them to attempt to convince others of that or it (Bauer, 1986, Ch. 10).
The opponents, on the other hand, do not content themselves with mak-
ing the eminently reasonable statement, "The evidence is not strong
enough; and anyway the matter is implausible in the extreme; there is no
reason for me to take an interest". No: they typically say, "It is not so,
because it cannot be so"; and thus they lend support to the charges typically
brought by the proponents, that scientists are arrogantly dogmatic, unwill-
ing to examine revolutionary new phenomena or theories, and (unwarran-
tedly) confident that science already knows all the important things.
Deceptive Unity
Because the proponents of an anomaly can readily see themselves as a
beleaguered minority, there is a tendency to close ranks against the de-
bunkers even when the ranks are then closed on bed-fellows that the propo-
nents would rather not have. For that phenomenon in the Loch Ness con-
troversy, see Bauer ( 1986, pp. 76-77, 8 1-84); similarly in parapsychology
(Hoebens, 198 1-1982, p. 39): "The psi community has never completely
freed itself from the pernicious i d i e j x e that overt criticism of a colleague
may damage the cause and play into the hands of the enemies of parapsy-
chology. Some parapsychological researchers began to suspect Tenhaeff
long ago. Seldom, however, did they voice their doubts openly. And, when
they did, some sociological mechanism seems to have prevented an ade-
quate follow-up". Surely the cause is damaged more in the long run when
12 H. H. Bauer
that some participants cannot be relied upon. On the other hand, since there
is no overarching community of proponents of any anomaly-all are free
publicly to declare themselves believers or investigators-no discipline can
effectively be enforced, and the attempt to keep out undesirables may be-
come hopelessly ineffective as well as unpleasant. It is a typical dilemma: the
believers tend to close ranks because they do not trust outsiders to be capa-
ble of distinguishing-or even willing to distinguish-honest from fraudu-
lent or competent from incompetent anomalists; but as the ranks are closed
it becomes even more unlikely that such distinctions will in fact be made by
anyone.
At any rate, one ought to be clear that-quite apart from instances of
dishonesty or incompetence-sharp internal disagreements, both intellec-
tual and personal, commonly exist among proponents of a given anomaly
even when there are no obvious external signs of it. Thus much of the
tension among Velikovskians was long known only to insiders; and though
the monster-hunters at Loch Ness indulge in little public criticism of one
another, in private it is quite a different matter, and one soon finds that
there is little mutual respect or trust-let alone practical cooperation-
among a number of competing individuals and groups. The penchant that
debunkers and the media have for lumping together all proponents of a
given anomaly reveals a lack of knowledge and understanding.
The Role of Science
In arguments over anomalies, science is typically appealed to: the claim-
ants think that science ought to accept the existence of the anomaly suffi-
ciently to study it, while the debunkers call the anomaly pseudo-science.
That issue, in point of fact, is a red herring: the question, after all, is not what
science should do or say but whether or not the anomaly is real. By insisting
that science ought to take an interest, the claimants imply that science ought
to study something simply because it may be real, despite the fact that it
appears not to be consonant with the prevailing state-of-the-art, and despite
the fact that there is no obvious way efficiently to obtain useful data about
the matter; thus they display a misunderstanding of the way science actually
works. For their part, the disbelievers also misunderstand the nature of
science when they label an anomaly pseudo-science just because they think
it is not real: as though science only studied matters known beforehand to be
real! That both sides-and also the pundits and the media and the public-
so readily succumb to this red herring of appeal to science illustrates that this
is an age of scientism (whether or not it be, as so often claimed, an age of
science).
Scientism means taking science as the arbiter of truth, and nowadays we
all do that though we are not necessarily aware of it. The public is assured by
advertisers and by politicians that what is being pushed has been scientifi-
cally shown or tested-"scientific tests have shown . . ."; what function is
served by "scientific" or "scientifically" in such a context except to deliver
the seal of certainty?
No one disputes the power or truthfulness of science. The believers insist

that science should enter the picture because, perhaps without even knowing
it, they believe the imprimatur of science to be the ultimate guarantee that
they are not mistaken. The believers may often seem to be moved by re-
sentment of science, and they may often seem to be criticizing it harshly, but
the criticism turns out on closer examination to be only that science has
gone wrong in this particular instance, science would be quite all right if
only it rectified that error: so Velikovskians sought reform of science, and
saw themselves as building a correct Velikovskian science; and fundamen-
talists are not content to have the divine revelation of creation, they require
the reassurance of "creation science".
Misconceptions About Science

Arguing over whether an anomaly is pseudo-science, and appealing to
science as the arbiter of truth, though actually a red herring nevertheless
serves to make the nature of science a common theme in these arguments,
one about which wide ignorance and confusion are then displayed: over
whether science is a quest, or the application of a defined method, or a body
of reliable knowledge, or an aristocratic pursuit; over how reliable scientific
knowledge actually is, especially when laws or theories are applied under
novel circumstances; and, in consequence, over how applicable "science"
may be to such fields as history, or in everyday life, or in particular to
discussions of anomalies. And always there arises the question, who can
legitimately claim to speak in the name of science? In fact, one of the most
indubitably instructive consequences of looking at arguments over anoma-
lies is that one becomes aware of how little understood is science, never
mind that it is universally appealed to.
Ignorance
Ignorance of various sorts, not only about science, plays an important role
in arguments over anomalies. By definition, of course, we are ignorant
about the main question, whether the anomaly is real or only apparent; but
we are also usually ignorant about what sort of knowledge might actually
help to answer the question, and certainly we are ignorant about how to
obtain that knowledge. Since we are ignorant about whicli discipline might
be relevant, it can happen that useful information exists without the dispu-
tants being aware of it: for instance that some species of spiders let masses of
web fall from high in the atmosphere. Ignorance is a central characteristic of
arguments over anomalies. The ignorance may be chiefly on one side or the
other: for instance on matters of physics in respect of the flat-earthers or
(specifically regarding electromagnetism and gravity) the Velikovskians. Or,
both sides may be ignorant: for instance about what science is and how it
works, where both Velikovskians and their critics were notably wrong, albeit
in different ways.
14 H. H. Bauer
Most interesting, of course, are those anomalies over which argument

persists because we all-humankind-are still ignorant of what is needed to
settle the argument; and that ignorance is surely sufficient reason to explore,
as scientifically as is feasible, the domain of anomalous phenomena.
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JournalofScientiJic Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. !5-26, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
Pergamon Press plc. Printed in the USA. 01989 Society for Scientific Exploration
INVITED ESSAY
Anomalies: Analysis and Aesthetics
ROBERT G. J A H N
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
Abstract-In properly allying itself with traditional scientific tenets and

procedures, anomalies research also risks encumbrance by scientific stodg-
iness, scientific segregation, and scientific secularity. In particular, the con-
temporary rejection by established science of its own metaphysical heritage
and essence precludes its further evolution into physical and biological
domains where consciousness plays demonstrably active roles. Some or-
derly rapprochement of subjective and objective experience and represen-
tation within the scientific paradigm will be required to make it effective in
such arenas.
Three epistemological premises prompted the conception and birth of our

Society for Scientific Exploration, and have guided its early life:
1. Empirical anomalies in any scientific sector can be precious indicators of

the limits of established wisdom and can open trails to better under-
standing.
2. Study of such anomalies must be pursued with uncompromising rigor
and critical conservatism.
3. Contemporary anomalies research needs an objective interdisciplinary
forum for comfortable professional discussion of the phenomena and
their implications.
By our membership policies, the structure and conduct of our meetings, and
the design of our publications, we have attempted to implement these ideals
to insure that SSE shall indeed propagate its research with at least as high a
level of technical rigor and critical judgment as prevail in most mainstream
scientific organizations. Yet, in this lofty commitment there lurk possibili-
ties for severe pragmatic tensions, if the premises are not profoundly inter-
preted and carefully balanced.
The problem, of course, is not with the principles, per se, but with their
abuse. As Dorothy Sayers reminds us, the familiar adage "the road to hell is
paved with good intentions" may not so much refer to noble aspirations left
unfulfilled by neglect, distraction, or incompetence, as to those pursued so
slavishly that they become ends in themselves, to the point of negating, or
even inverting, their original virtues. The sacred tenets of science are by no
means invulnerable to such distortion by excess. As a present and pertinent
15
16 R. G. Jahn
example, we might point to the prevailing plethora of criticism concerning

the conduct and interpretation of the various forms of anomalies research in
which we are engaged. To the extent that such commentary is informed,
fair, and constructive, it provides important restraints along the paths of
understanding, and nothing that follows here should be construed to con-
tradict the essential role of such critical analysis in the scholarly progress of
our Society. But in its uninformed, unfair, or self-serving misapplication,
such criticism becomes distracting, divisive, and counterproductive, and
must be courageously resisted.
So also with excessive deference to other canons of the scientific process.
In allying ourselves too assiduously with the prevailing content, methodol-
ogy, and standards of science, we can become bound by its dogma and
limited by its self-imposed horizons; in over-valuing scientific caution, we
can become mired in scientific inertia. Three categories of such encum-
brance that bear quite directly on the SSE situation might be termed "scien-
tific stodginess," "scientific segregation," and "scientific secularity." Let us
consider the first two very briefly, and the third in more detail.
Scientific Stodginess
Many of us have witnessed, and possibly even contributed to, legitimate
professional disagreements that have escalated to matters of principle, then
into ad hominem personal conflicts, and thence to outright bigotry and
inanity. Many of the greatest minds of science have similarly blundered into
such foibles. History records a dreary sequence of cases where scholars of
immense stature, themselves having broken through entrenched pedantry to
open new horizons, later obstructed scientific progress with their own
brands of bombast. We think of Ernest Rutherford, who first showed the
world the nuclear atom, subsequently fulminating:
It is a very poor and inefficient way of producing energy, and anyone who looks for a
source of power in the transformation of atoms is talking moonshine. (Rowland,
1957, p. 129)
With equally misplaced authority, the Astronomer Royal, Richard Wooley,

proclaimed one year before Sputnick, that "space travel is utter bilge." Lord
Kelvin assured us that x-rays would prove a hoax and that heavier-than-air
travel was impossible. Ernst Mach decried both atoms and relativity.
D'Alembert distrusted probability theory, and Lavoisier and Ostwald dis-
puted atomic chemistry. The list of such derailments of scholarly judgment
is long and humbling.
More modern examples of similar abuse of scientific conservatism also
abound. In the particular fields of our interest, we find them displayed not
only by individual critics, but by a number of fully-blown professional
organizations. And the tragedy lies not only in the direct encumbrance of
Anomalies: Analysis and aesthetics 17
the research they decry, but even more seriously in the adulteration of
legitimate criticism that could constructively separate valid evidence from
fantasy.
One obviously should not claim that short-sighted authoritarian opposi-
tion of this sort automatically guarantees the validity of the concept criti-
cized. Nonetheless, there may well be some subtle correlation between the
emotionality of a critical reaction and the viability of its target, especially
when the latter seriously threatens some deeply entrenched professional or
personal position. In this respect, "the lady protesteth too much" criterion
may occasionally apply to Madame Science, as well.
Scientific Segregation
Modern science has proven supremely effective in systematically subdi-

viding complex problems into more manageable portions, discriminating
among potential mechanisms and competing concepts, analyzing elemental
processes, and cataloging the results. In general, however, it has proven
considerably less effective in putting the pieces back together-in synthesiz-
ing new systems and unfamiliar interactions, especially when these have
involved multidisciplinary aspects. To confirm this imbalance of compe-
tence, one need look no further than the number of extant specialist and
sub-specialist professional societies and journals compared to those address-
ing interdisciplinary topics or strategies, or examine the relatively primitive
states of such fields as human factors engineering, operations research,
complex systems analysis, etc., or note the essential absence of any basic
discipline that might qualify as "systems science."
Along with this severe conceptual subdivision come equally esoteric lan-
guages that further inhibit transdisciplinary dialogues, engender profes-
sional chauvinisms, and even raise suspicions fostered by unfamiliarity and
exclusion. This "Babel" of hyperspecialization is becoming a progressively
greater obstruction to the comprehension and application of much conven-
tional modern science; in the fields of research that our society encom-
passes, it could be quite fatal to the entire enterprise. The cartoon of Figure 1
(courtesy of Henry H. Bauer) is a reasonably apt caricature of some com-
ments overheard in the corridors of SSE annual meetings and, if we are
totally honest, of our own private hierarchies of credibility. How often do we
feel that the courageous experimentation and blazing insight featured in our
own research deserves the most broad-minded respect and admiration from
our colleagues, while the work some of them pursue is just too controversial
and too extreme to be fully credible? Yet it is quite possible that each of our
topics remains anomalous precisely because we lack the breadth of perspec-
tive to put it in that larger context of understanding wherein the phenomena
can be accommodated naturally, and wherein more comprehensive theoret-
ical models could pertain. Are we not more likely to unfold that broader
18 R. G. Jahn
Fig. 1.*
comprehension collectively, rather than individually? And do we not need

to learn how to converse collectively before we can reason collectively?
Scientific Secularity
The third, and possibly most severe, class of impediment imposed by the
excessively rigid stance of modern science, and the one on which we shall
dwell a bit, devolves from its categorical and contradictory denial of its own
metaphysical essence and heritage. The very word "metaphysical" has come
to carry distasteful or suspicious connotations for most scientific purists,
and is usually applied pejoratively in any research context. As we use the
term here, however, it is simply meant to encompass all subjective, intuitive,
impressionistic, or aesthetic aspects of a scientific situation which, while not
submitting comfortably to prevailing catalogues and formalisms, nonethe-
less are found empirically, or hypothesized heuristically, to be relevant to
the given event or process. The historical precedents for inclusion of such
factors in scientific study and applications are floribundant beyond ques-
tion. Ancient science, from prehistoric civilizations through the Egyptians,
Babylonians, Orientals, and classical Greeks, was an inextricable admixture
of mystical, magical, and analytical manipulation that served for millennia
to undergird the technological needs of those societies. Medieval alchemy
likewise propagated as a sacred marriage of the Hermetic philosophical
tradition with the early methods of analytical chemistry. Even the first
-- - -
* Reproduced with the permission of, and appreciation to, Professor Henry H. Bauer.
echelon of the analytical astronomers-Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler,

Galileo-now popularly represented as breaking through the suffocating fog
of theological dogma with sound scientific methodology, actually carried
forth much of the same metaphysical tradition. Note how Copernicus justi-
fied his heliocentric universe:
In the middle of all sits the Sun enthroned. In this most beautiful temple, could we
place this luminary in any better position from which he can illuminate the whole at
once? He is rightly called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Universe: Hermes
Trismegistus names him the Visible God, Sophocles' Electra calls him the All-See-
ing. So the Sun sits as upon a royal throne, ruling his children, the planets which
circle around him. (Bronowski, 1973, pp. 196-197)
Kepler similarly rationalized his orbital geometry:
. . . when intersected by a plane, the sphere displays in this section the circle, the
genuine image of the created mind, placed in command of the body which it is
appointed to rule; and this circle is to the sphere as the human mind is to the Mind
Divine . . . (Pauli, 1955, p. 16 1 )
Even the mighty Isaac Newton, on whose classical mechanics and optics
modern science is irrevocably based, has been accurately described by one
biographer as:
. . . not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the
Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and
intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual
inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago. (Keynes, 1963, p. 3 11)
and by another as that premier scientist who regarded the ultimate mecha-
nism of change in the universe to reside in the "mystery by which mind
could control matter" (Kubrin, 198 1, p. 1 1 3).
Ah, we say, but did not Sir Francis Bacon, the Age of Enlightenment, the
Scientific Revolution, and the formation of the Royal Society clean all of
this naive metaphysical junk off of the work tables of modern science? Not
quite. It is true that Bacon, the acknowledged father of the modern scientific
method, insisted on a critical dialogue between hard empirical evidence and
sound analytical logic, but he then proceeded to apply such methods to the
study of telepathic dreams, psychic healing, and "experiments touching
transmission of spirits and the force of the imagination" (Walker, 1972, p.
127). In his Charter for the Royal Society, Robert Hooke indeed rejected
"meddling with Divinity, Metaphysics, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, Rhet-
oric, or Logick" (Lyons, 1944, p. 41), but then went on himself to study,
write, and lecture on keenly metaphysical topics. His colleague Robert
Boyle, author of "The Skeptical Chymist," retained an intense commitment
to the Hermetic heritage (More, 1962), and the Royal Society as a whole
20 R. G. Jahn
promoted scientific study of astrology, alchemy, prophecy, magic, and

witchcraft.
To be sure, toward the close of the 19th century, the profound triumphs of
electromagnetic wave theory prompted the prevailing physics establishment
to wax rather smug about the omnipotence of deterministic, causal science,
apparently overlooking the intuitive conviction of natural symmetry that
had led Maxwell to propose his subtle, but all-important, displacement
current. But the complacency was short-lived, for over the following decades
there erupted a host of new physical anomalies-black-body radiation,
atomic and molecular line spectra, photoelectric and Compton effects, spe-
cific heats of solids, and numerous others, that simply could not be swept
under the classical scientific rug, and the enigmatic era of modern physics
was at hand.
An enigmatic era indeed, featuring quanta and photons, wave/particle
dualities, uncertainty and exclusion principles, probability-of-observation
wave mechanics, and countless other counter-intuitive concepts that reim-
bued physical science with a distinctly metaphysical aroma. And none rec-
ognized the philosophical inescapability and pragmatic impact of this di-
mension more profoundly than the patriarchs of modern physics them-
selves. The father of their clan, Max Planck, courageously broached the
fundamental issue:
Once we have decided that the law of causality is by no means a necessary element in
the process of human thought, we have made a mental clearance for the approach to
the question of its validity in the world of reality. (Planck, 1932, p. 1 17)
Neils Bohr responded with his own radical conviction:
. . . causality may be considered as a mode of perception by which we reduce our

sense impressions to order. (Bohr, 196 1, p. 1 16)
Erwin Schrodinger took a yet more vigorous metaphysical position:
The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject
and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken
down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not
exist. . . . Mind has erected the objective outside world of the natural philosopher
out of its own stuff. (Schrodinger, 1967, p. 137 and p. 13 1)
And Louis de Broglie, the Prince of particulate probability, closely presaged

our own present convictions about the role of consciousness in the estab-
lishment of reality:
Science is therefore a strange sort of penetration into a world which through human
consciousness and reason has learned to become aware of itself. (de Broglie, 1962,
p. 220)
Even in the most exact of all the natural sciences, in Physics, the need for margins of
indeterminateness has repeatedly become apparent-a fact which, it seems to us, is
worthy of the attention of philosophers, since it may throw a new and illuminating
light on the way in which the idealizations formed by our reason become adaptable
to Reality. (de Broglie, 1939, pp. 28 1-282)
There is no substitute for thorough reading of the extensive personal

writings of these and the other pioneers of modern physics to acquire full
appreciation of the implicit and explicit mystical dimensions of this era of
science. And it is an era that is far from closed. Even now, we continue to be
confronted by latter-day EPR paradoxes and action-at-a-distance experi-
ments that severely contradict the premises of local causality. In our concep-
tualization and linguistic representation of sub-nuclear phenomena on one
extreme-quarks, gluons, strangeness, charm, and so on-and of astro-
physical and cosmological processes on the other-quasars, black holes,
cosmic strings, pulsating bubble universes, etc.-there smolder some of the
same metaphysical propensities that were more explicitly enflamed in
Hermes's precepts or the alchemist's forge.
And we certainly must include in this list the research encompassed by
this Society, which in many of its projects addresses frankly metaphysical
effects. For example, data on manlmachine anomalies like those shown in
Figure 2 have been presented in this forum on several occasions (Jahn,
Dunne, & Nelson, 1987). The particular case shown pertains to the interac-
tion of one human operator with a microelectronic random event generator
(REG) in a very carefully controlled sequence of experiments extending
over nine years. Plotted are the accumulated deviations of the output of the
machine from chance expectation, obtained under a tripolar protocol
wherein the operator alternately attempted to achieve a high number of
- 10 - 5
1
-8000 I I I I
10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 55100

NUMBER OF TRIALS
Fig. 2. REG cumulative deviations from chance, one operator.

22 R.G. Jahn
counts (HI), a low number of counts (LO), or the chance number of counts
(BL), interspersed in a random sequence of efforts, with all other technical
and procedural aspects of the experiment held identical. As can be seen from
the figure, the null-intention or baseline effort yields a string of data oscil-
lating stochastically about the theoretical chance mean. The high-intention
efforts produce results displaying the same sort of stochastic oscillations, but
now superimposed on a systematic trend toward ever increasing excess
above chance. The low-intention efforts show a similar, but even more
substantial trend in the opposite direction. On this figure, the dashed parab-
olas represent the loci of .05 likelihood of achieving the given excursions by
chance, and the scale on the right ordinate shows the full range of terminal
probabilities against chance for this huge sequence of data. Specifically, for
the more than 30,000,000 bits processed in the more than 50,000 tripolar
trials of this operator's program, the likelihood of obtaining the displayed
split of the HI and LO data by chance is less than a few parts per million.
More than 30 other operators have performed this same experiment.
Some achieve much like the example shown in Figure 2; some are successful
in only one direction of effort, or in the other; some display only chance
results; a few achieve extra-chance results in directions opposite to their
intentions. But despite these major differences in detail, in most cases each
operator's pattern is serially consistent with itself, i.e., internally replicable
in the statistical sense, so much so that we refer to the individual cumulative
deviation graphs as operator "signatures."
In some cases, these signatures are sensitive to secondary technical param-
eters of the experiment, such as whether the operator is allowed to choose
the direction of effort or is instructed by some randomization criterion, or
whether the operator is allowed to initiate each trial at his comfort or is
presented with a regularly spaced sequence of automatic trials, or whether
on-line feedback is provided and in what form. In other cases, however, the
signatures appear insensitive to such options. Nonetheless, if the results of
all operators, obtained under all permutations of these secondary parame-
ters, are combined in a grand concatenation, the cumulative deviations still
compound to highly significant statistical departures from chance behavior
(Figure 3).
Although these REG data are clearly operator-specific, intention-specific,
and in some cases parameter-specific, curiously they seem to be much less
device-specific. Several other similarly extensive experiments have been
performed using different microelectronic noise sources, pseudo-random
sources constructed from arrays of microelectronic shift registers, pro-
grammed computer algorithms, and even macroscopic mechanical ana-
logue devices. In a number of cases, an operator's signature of performance
is found to transfer with remarkable similarity from one class of device to
another. For example, Figure 4 shows a comparison of the cumulative
deviation signature of one operator on a microelectronic REG, a shift-regis-
ter pseudo REG, and a macroscopic Random Mechanical Cascade (RMC)
- 10000 1 I I I I I
50000 100000 150000 200000 250000

NUMBER OF TRIALS
Fig. 3. REG cumulative deviations from chance, all operators.
respectively. Note the perseverance of the substantial low-intention efforts,

the less substantial but characteristic high-intention trace with its initial
strength and subsequent decline, and the well-behaved null-intention
results.
A great deal more data from experiments of this sort could be shown,
where the only independent variables of consequence are the individual
operators and their directions of effort (Dunne, Nelson, & Jahn, 1988).
Although these illustrations have been drawn from our own research base,
many other studies (referenced in Jahn, Dunne, & Nelson, 1987), including
some presented to this Society over the past several years, would seem to
lead toward similar conclusions. Obviously, many more experiments of this
class, including independent replications of those already reported, are now
required, for unless such results can be directly discredited, the need for
some metaphysical component in any model attempting to explicate, or
even to correlate, the data seems unavoidable.
Summary
What is the point of this potpourri of historical, philosophical, and scien-
tific musing? It is not, of course, a plea for return to blind superstition or
superficial mysticism, nor for compromise with soft-shell science of any
form. Rather, it is a suggestion that research such as our society fosters
would be better served by a more complementary balance between our
objective and subjective perspectives, of much the same sort that Bohr
proposed:
. . . we must, indeed, remember that the nature of our consciousness brings about a
complementary relationship, in all domains of knowledge, between the analysis of a
R. G. Jahn
I a ) REG 4 10-4
NUMBER OF T R I A L S
1 b) PSEUDO - REG -I .OO I

2000 -
--------_______
-------___
- 2000-
------*_____
- .05
-4000
0 5000 10000 15000 20000
NUMBER OF TRIALS
0 50 100 150 200 250

RUN NUMBER
Fig. 4. Cumulative deviations, one operator on three experiments.
concept and its immediate application. . . . in associating the psychical and physical
aspects of existence, we are concerned with a special relationship of complementarity
which it is not possible thoroughly to understand by one-sided application either of
physical or psychological laws. . . . only a renunciation in this respect will enable us
to comprehend . . . that harmony which is experienced as free will and analyzed in
terms of causality. (Bohr, 196 1 , pp. 20-24)
Heisenberg also offered a similar generalization of the complementarity

principle:
We realize that the situation of complementarity is not confined to the atomic world
alone; we meet it when we reflect about a decision and the motives for our decision
or when we have the choice between enjoying music and analyzing its structure.
(Heisenberg, 1 958, p. 179)
and Pauli specifically addressed it to our context:
On the one hand, the idea of complementarity in modern physics has demonstrated
to us, in a new kind of synthesis, that the contradiction in the applications of old
contrasting conceptions (such as particle and wave) is only apparent; on the other
hand the employability of old alchemical ideas in the psychology of Jung points to a
deeper unity of psychical and physical occurrences. To us . . . the only acceptable
point of view appears to be the one that recognizes both sides of reality-the quanti-
tative and the qualitative, the physical and the psychical-as compatible with each
other, and can embrace them simultaneously. . . . It would be most satisfactory of
all if physics and psyche could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality.
(Pauli, 1955, pp. 208-2 10)
In short, our plea is for more formal acknowledgement of the pervasive

metaphysical stream that continues to permeate and nourish much of our
contemporary science and technology. This acknowledgement is not likely
to be initiated by any of the well-established sectors of modern analytical
research. These are too structured and hierarchical, too busy and comfort-
able, and admittedly too effective, to confront this dimension without con-
siderably greater demonstration of its local relevance and provincial bene-
fits. But within the traffic pattern of SSE, we not only have the opportunity
and the disposition, but very possibly the necessity, of reengaging the analyt-
ical and the aesthetic aspects of scholarly science. Manlmachine anomalies
like those displayed in Figures 2-4, for example, are not likely to be ren-
dered theoretically comprehensible without some disciplined inclusion of
the role of consciousness as an active ingredient in the establishment of
reality. One modest attempt at such a model, presented earlier to SSE,
allows consciousness the same wavelparticle duality it has ascribed to var-
ious physical systems, and then invokes the formalisms of quantum wave
mechanics to represent interactions of consciousness with its environment
(Jahn & Dunne, 1986, 1987).
Clearly, any attempt to generalize the analytical mechanics of science to
encompass the metaphysical mechanics of consciousness is a monumental
26 R. G. Jahn
task, fraught with all manner of seductive and dangerous sinkholes of

naivetk. But it is a task that is ultimately unavoidable. As Carl Friedrich von
Weizsacker put it nearly 50 years ago:
Two fundamental functions of consciousness underlie every statement of physics:

cognition and volition. (von Weizsacker, 194 1, p. 489)
We can and, wherever possible, we should keep trying to accommodate our

growing assortment of empirical anomalies within the concepts and formal-
isms of established science. But when this fails, and when all legitimate
attempts to disqualify the anomalous data subside, there is no alternative
but to expand the conceptual base. Like Sherlock Holmes, when confronted
by an array of valid but irreconcilable evidence, we must boldly and cleverly
redefine the question. In so doing, however primitively and incompletely,
we shall not only enlighten some of our own enigmas and advance our
parochial understanding, but we may well offer all of science a precious key
to a more powerful future paradigm for many other areas of its endeavor.
References
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Bronowski, J. (1973). The ascent qfman. Boston and Toronto: Little Brown and Co.
de Broglie, L. (1939). Matter and light: The new physics. New York: W. W. Norton.
de Broglie, L. (1962). New perspectives in physics (trans.. A. J. Pomerans). New York: Basic
Books.
Dunne, B. J., Nelson, R. D., & Jahn, R. G. (1988). Operator-related anomalies in a random
mechanical cascade. Journal of Scientljc Exploration, 2(2), pp. 155-1 79.
Heisenberg, W. (1958). Physics and philosophy: The revolution in modern physics. New York:
Harper and Row, Harper Torchbooks.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1986). On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with appli-
cation to anomalous phenomena. Foundations of Physics, 16, 72 1-772.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1987). Margins qfreality: The role ofconsciousness in thephysical
world. San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Jahn, R. G., Dunne, B. J., & Nelson, R. D. (1987). Engineering anomalies research. Journal of
Scient$c Exploration, 1(1), pp. 21-50.
Keynes, J. M. ( 1963). Newton, the man. In G. Keynes (Ed.), Essays in biography(pp. 3 10-323).
New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Kubrin, D. (1 98 1). Newton's inside out! Magic, class struggle, and the rise of mechanism in the
west. In H. Woolf (Ed.), The anal-vtic spirit: Essays in the history of science (pp. 96-121).
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Lyons, H. (1944). The Royal Society 1660-1940. Cambridge: The University Press.
More, L. T. (1962). Isaac Newton: A biography. New York: Dover Publications.
Planck, M. (1932). Where is sciencegoing?(trans., J. Murphy). New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Pauli, W. (1955). The influence of archetypal ideas on Kepler's theories. In C. G. Jung & W.
Pauli, The interpretation of nature and thepsyche(pp. 147-240). (trans., R. F. C. Hull). New
York: Pantheon Books (Bollingen Series LI).
Rowland, J. (1 957). Ernest Rutherford. New York: The Philosophical Library.
Schrodinger, E. (1967). Mind and matter. In What is life? and Mind and matter. Cambridge:
The University Press.
Walker, D. P. (1972). Francis Bacon and Spiritus. In A. G. Debus (Ed.), Science, medicine and
society in the renaissance (pp. 12 1 - 1 30). New York: Neale Watson Academic Publications,
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von Weizdcker, C. F. ( 1941-42). Zur deutung der Quantenmechanik. Zeitschrzfifur Physik,
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Journul c!f'Screntifrr Explorulion. Vol. 3, No. I , pp. 27-42, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
Trends in the Study of Out-of-Body Experiences:

An Overview of Developments Since the Nineteenth Century
CARLOS S. ALVARADO
Institute for Parapsychology, Box 6847, College Station, Durham, NC 27708
Abstract-A review of conceptual and research trends in the literature on

out-of-body experiences is presented for the period of mid-nineteenth cen-
tury to 1987. The discussion emphasizes psychological, psychiatric, and
parapsychological publications. The material shows recurrent topics, but
there are also some differences, particularly regarding more detailed con-
ceptual discussions and a higher frequency of research projects in recent
times. Systematic research and testable theories have been presented
mainly in the last two decades. This may be related to the revival of interest
in cognitive variables and altered states of consciousness in psychology
during the same time period.
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs), defined as "an experience in which a per-

son seems to perceive the world from a location outside his physical body"
(Blackmore, 1982a, p. I), have received considerable attention in recent
years. This is evident in a variety of books (e.g., Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984;
Irwin, 1985), and articles in psychiatry (e.g., Tobacyk & Mitchell, 1987;
Twemlow, Gabbard, & Jones, 1982), and parapsychology journals (e.g.,
Blackmore, 1984a; Stanford, 1987).
Although a number of publications present reviews of OBE research find-
ings and concepts (e.g., Alvarado, 1986b; Blackmore, 1982a; Irwin, 1985),
there is a need for a briefer and more systematic discussion of the develop-
ment of research trends and concepts as opposed to more summaries of
research findings. Accordingly, in the present paper I will focus on trends, as
opposed to findings, in publications on OBEs published since the middle of
the nineteenth century. I hope that this general, and admittedly brief, review
will be helpful to convey to the reader a sense of the main ideas and litera-
ture of the field. For convenience I have organized the material into four
chronological periods: ( 1) the nineteenth century; (2) 1900-1939; ( 3 )
1940-1969; (4) 1970-1987. These division are to some extent arbitrary and
should not be taken to represent literal epochs, only general trends.
In this paper I will emphasize some aspects to the exclusion of others. The
following material will not be included: ( 1) the experiences and theoretical
Acknowledgements. Research for the completion of this paper was supported in part by a
grant from the Parapsychology Foundation. I wish to thank Nancy L. Zingrone for useful
editorial suggestions.
28 C. S. Alvarado
ideas of persons who have had multiple OBEs or who claim to be able to
have them at will (e.g., Muldoon & Carrington, 1929); (2) discussions based
on "psychic" sources of information (e.g., Crookall, 1960); (3) discussions of
ideas on the existence and nature of subtle bodies unrelated to OBEs (e.g.,
Poortman, 195411978); (4) accounts of attempts to detect subtle bodies
when it is not clear if the subject had the experience of being out of the body
(e.g., Durville, 1909); (5) anthropological discussions of belief in OBEs (e.g.,
Sheils, 1978); (6) discussions of autoscopy-or seeing an apparition of one-
self-with no OBE elements (e.g., Lhermitte, 1951); and (7) studies of de-
personalization experiences when it is not clear that OBEs are involved (e.g.,
Noyes et a]., 1977).
Nineteenth Century
Most of the early (pre-1880s) views on OBEs emphasized the idea that
something-the spirit or the soul-exteriorized from the body and either
stayed close to the physical body or visited distant locations or dimensions.'
An anonymous (1853, 1854) writer expressed this viewpoint in the Ameri-
can Phrenological Journal. In the writer's view the OBE may have indicated
"that while the soul is normally connected with the body, and is in a great
degree dependent upon it, it still may exist as a separate entity, entirely
independent of the physical organism" (Anonymous, 1854, p. 8 1). Similar
ideas were presented by Owen (1 860), who wrote about the projection of a
"spiritual portion" (p. 347) of the body, and by many other writers (e.g.,
Brittan, 1864; Cahagnet, 1847- 184811850; Crowe, 1848; Jung-Stilling,
1808/1851).
The concept of the "double" or subtle body was used by many writers to
explain spontaneous psychic phenomena during this period. Some of the
phenomena accounted by the presumed action of this agent were appari-
tions of living persons (e.g., Aksakof, 1895; D'Assier, 1887; Kardec, 186 1 ;
Stead, 1896). These apparitions sometimes have an OBE component.
In his discussion of theoretical problems to account for apparitions and
particularly collectively perceived ones, Frederic W. H. Myers, a classical
scholar and psychical researcher, proposed that persons having OBEs may
be perceived as apparitions by some sort of nonphysical modification of
space. The apparition, according to Myers, appeared to be "diffused from a
'radiant point,' or phantasmogenetic focus, corresponding with that region
of space where the distant agent conceives himself to be exercising his
supernormal perception" (Myers, 1886, p. 29 1).
Myers' ideas, to which he returned later (Myers, 1903), were a reaction to
Edmund Gurney's concepts of apparitions. Gurney regarded the OBE as an
hallucination of the pathological type and proposed and developed the con-
cept of telepathically induced hallucinations to explain diverse types of
spontaneous ESP experiences, particularly apparitions of the living and
Trends in the study of OBEs 29
2
reciprocal apparitions (Gurney, Myers, & Podmore, 1886). Others, such as
Podmore ( 1 894) and Mrs. Sidgwick ( 189 1)also supported telepathic halluci-
natory explanation^.^
This period presented little systematic research. Exceptions are Gurney's
case collection of reciprocal apparition cases and attempts at presenting an
analysis of case characteristics (Gurney, Myers, & Podmore, 1886), and the
induction under hypnosis of so-called "travelling clairvoyance" by others.
The latter were cases in which hypnotized subjects were instructed to visit a
distant location and report events occurring there, or describe the location
itself. This type of "experiment" may be considered as early attempts to test
for ESP during OBEs (e.g., Backman, 189 1 ; Barth, 1849; Elliotson, 1845;
Haddock, 185 1).
While some, like Cahagnet ( 1847- 184811850), believed that the exterior-
ization of some aspect of the subjects explained travelling clairvoyance,
others proposed different explanations. Richet (1887) held the opinion that
the experience was created by the subject's memory and imagination pro-
cesses. Podmore (1894) felt that instructions given to the subjects shaped the
report into "travelling" imagery.
Overview
The nineteenth century writings on OBEs were characterized by theoreti-
cal concepts, particularly those postulating the exteriorization of some
aspect of the person having the experience (the spirit, double, or subtle
body). However, alternate explanations postulating the concept of telepathic
hallucinations were also defended. Gurney's case collection and the at-
tempts of others to induce travelling clairvoyance by hypnosis present the
first efforts towards research on OBEs.
While numerous case reports (e.g., Anonymous, 1929; Haning, 1932),

case collections, and discussions of specific groups of cases were published
during this period (e.g., Bozzano, 193411937; Leaning, 1928; Mattisien,
1931 ; Muldoon, 1936), there was practically no empirical research on the
phenomena. Possible exceptions are Cornillier's ( 192 1 ) travelling clairvoy-
ance studies, and Wallace's (1925) report of attempts to move objects dur-
ing OBEs.
Also interesting was a paper by Hart and Hart (1933) presenting pre-
viously published cases of OBE apparitions and comparing them to cases of
apparitions of deceased persons. They wrote, "some apparitions of living
persons seem to have been self-conscious personalities, while others seem to
have retained only vague memories, or no memories whatever, of their
30 C. S. Alvarado
As will be seen in the following discussion this period is an extension and
development of previous theoretical concepts proposed as explanations
of OBEs.
The concept of projection of a subtle body received considerable atten-
tion. This interest was kindled by, among other factors, the attempts at the
physical detection of subtle bodies (e.g., Durville, 1909; deRochas, 1908; see
also Alvarado, 1980), and by numerous publications of autobiographical
accounts of persons who claimed the ability to induce the experience. These
writings emphasized phenomenological aspects of the experience such as
travels to distant places and "dimensions" (e.g., Fox, 1939; Lancelin, n.d.;
Muldoon & Carrington, 1929; Turvey, 19 11).
Funk (1907) wrote that OBE apparitions indicated the "power of the
, human ego to manifest itself objectively at a distance" (p. 179). Hans
I
Driesch (193211933) seemed to be open to the concept in one of his books.
Other authors such as Bret (1939), Mattisien (193 l), and Muldoon (1936)
embraced the concept of the double to explain OBEs as well as other psychic
phenomena.
The work of Italian psychical researcher Ernesto Bozzano is of particular
interest in this regard. In a series of publications Bozzano ( 19 1 1, 193411 937,
1938) presented a classification of aspects of the phenomena - of "biloca-
tion," by which he meant a variety of manifestations for which the concept
of an externalization of or action by a subtle body was offered as an explana-
tion. The classification included OBEs, the phantom limb sensation of am-
putees, autoscopy, observations of OBE apparitions, and observations of
other apparitions of the living, and apparitions and luminous phenomena
observed at deathbeds. As Bozzano (1938) wrote:
The phenomena of bilocation demonstrate that within the "somatic body" there
exists an indwelling "etheric body," which in rare circumstances is able to release
itself temporarily from the "somatic body". The inevitable inference follows that if
the etheric body is able to separate temporarily preserving its consciousness intact,
we must end by recognizing that when it separates definitively at the crisis of death,
the individual spirit will continue to exist. (p. 10
Bozzano's concern with the implications of the OBE to the subject of

survival of bodily death5 can be found in many other publications in the
psychical research literature (e.g., Hill, 19 18; Mattisien, 1931; Myers, 1903).
Psychological explanations of OBEs were proposed by other researchers.
Hyslop ( 1912) accepted the ESP component of the experience but attributed
the OB sensation to the tendency of the subconscious mind to dramatize
images of locality that give the impression that the subject was in a different
physical location. Others considered the OBE a mere dream (Richet, 1922),
and a hallucination or the product of the imagination (Osty, 1930).6
Bret (1 939) accepted the idea of a subtle body to explain some OBEs, but
conceded that some specific cases were dreams or fantasies. Watters (1935)
also accepted the projection of a subtle body (or, as he called it, the "intra-
atomic quantity"), but argued that this could only occur at death. In his
opinion accounts of OBEs were to be explained as imagination and halluci-
nations.
Psychophysiological explanations were proposed by a few writers.
Schmeing (1938) explained flying dreams by external physical stimuli per-
ceived during sleep by withdrawal of blood from the brain that lowered the
body's pressure and produced a sensation of lightness. He believed that
similar factors of a greater magnitude could induce an OBE. Also, psycho-
logical aspects such as the realization that the body was no longer functional
helped to induce the experience.
In trying to make sense of an OBE he experienced, Charles Quartier (in
Osty, 1930) speculated on the importance of internal bodily sensations
when he wrote that the OBE was "the dramatization, in visual form, of
cenesthesic sensations" (p. 19 1, my translation). Mairie ( 1933) agreed with
this hypothesis.
Overview
As in the previous years, there was little by way of research, and concep-
tual discussions predominated. In depth discussions of specific cases, or
groups of cases, was also an important development. Although concepts
discussed in this period were similar to those of the nineteenth century, they
were somewhat more detailed in their propositions, particularly regarding
supposed psychological aspects of the phenomena. Another important de-
velopment was the introduction of psychophysiological theorizing.
In these years the trend towards more systematic study increased. Case
collections of OBEs and surveys of published cases were used to study
phenomenological aspects of the OBE and to argue for the objective nature
of the experience (e.g., Battersby, 1942; Crookall, 196 1; Hart, 1954; Muld-
don & Carrington, 1951).
Particularly important and influential were the publications of American
sociologist Hornell Hart and English geologist Robert Crookall. Hart fo-
cused on OBE cases with ostensibly veridical or ESP elements published
mainly in the psychical research literature (Hart, 1954).7 An important
methodological development was the use of a scale to measure the level of
evidentiality of the reports. In Hart's words: "The scale developed rules out
at the start all cases which do not present evidence that the individual who
had the psychic experience reported its details before receiving evidence of
their veridicality" (p. 125). The cases were classified under the following
categories: ( I ) cases induced by hypnosis; (2) willful projection by concen-
32 C. S. Alvarado
tration; (3) projection by methods more complex than concentration; (4)
spontaneous apparitions of the living corresponding to OB sensations or
visions of the experiencer; (5) other cases. Hart listed eight characteristics of
OBEs in his collection, and suggested that hypnosis should be seriously
considered as a means to induce OBES,' since it seemed to be "the method
most likely to produce full and verifiable" (p. 144) experiences. In later
publications Hart (1957; Hart & Collaborators, 1956) returned to similar
topics and compared the phenomenology of OB apparitions (conscious
apparitions of the living) with apparitions of deceased persons. In one of
these papers he published the first systematic percentage breakdown of OBE
case characteristics (Hart & Collaborators, 1 956).
Crookall's work, published in a series of papers (e.g., 1963, 1966, 1967a),
and books (e.g., 1961, 1964, 1965) was an attempt to support subtle body
concepts of OBEs by analyzing phenomenological aspects of OBE reports
obtained mainly from the spiritualist, psychical research, and occult litera-
t u r e ~Crookall
.~ alleged that he had found specific OBE characteristics that
differentiated the experience from hallucinations, dreams, and other sub-
jective phenomena.
The first survey on OBE incidence was conducted by Hart ( 1954) with a
college student sample. His study was followed by surveys done by Banks
(1962), and Green (1960, 1966, 1967, 1968). Green's work is particularly
important because she tried to see if there was any relationship between
OBEs, sex, and academic background ( 1966, 1967). She also studied OBE
phenomenology with new cases, as opposed to reanalysing previously pub-
lished ones ( 1968).
In 1942 Collins commented that the study of OBEs was "a field for
experimental research, which so far has been strangely neglected" (Collins,
1942, p. 74). However, soon after some studies were reported, among them
the observations of "bilocation" phenomena with Italian subject Pasqualina
Pezzola (Cassoli, 1954), and attempts to study ESP during hypnotically
induced OBEs (e.g., Bulford, n.d.; Roll, 1975). Charles T. Tart (1967, 1968,
1969b) conducted the most important and influential studies of the period.
Subjects who claimed to have frequent spontaneous OBEs or to be able to
induce the experience at will were tested for ESP and monitored on psycho-
physiological variables such as EEG, EKG, and REM. These studies repre-
sented a transition from older and simpler to newer and more sophisticated
approaches. As Irwin (1985) stated, Tart's studies "often are regarded as
seminal in restoring modern parapsychologists' attention to the phenome-
non of the OBE" (p. 66).1°
Conceptually, many writers speculated on OBEs implications for survival
research. While Hart (1967) and Whiteman (1965) argued for the OBE's
importance as an indication of survival, others like Ducasse (196 1) and J. B.
Rhine (1960) argued that the experience was inconclusive evidence of sur-
idea that the phenomenon was dependent on the physical body for its
manifestation.
Other conceptual issues included discussions of the projection of subtle
bodies and purely psychological explanations. Crookall (1967b), Hart
(1967), and other writers (e.g., De Boni, 1960; Dumas, 1947) speculated on
the existence of a subtle body (see also Whiteman's [I9671 concepts of
non-physical dimensions). But others, like Louisa E. Rhine (1958) were not
convinced. Rhine reacted to Hart's ideas by maintaining that the explana-
tion of OBEs was "still in question and certainly open to more than one
interpretation" (p. 65). Both Broad (1959) and Eastman (1962) showed
skepticism to subtle body ideas. In Gardner Murphy's opinion OBEs were
"not very far from the known terrain of general psychology, which we are
beginning to understand more and more without recourse to the paranor-
mal" (Murphy with Dale, 196 1, p. 287).
Among specific psychological concepts offered by other writers, Tyrrell
(194211953) interpreted OBEs as hallucinatory constructs of the subcon-
scious levels of personality of two or more persons working together, at a
distance, through ESP means. (Tyrrell's ideas were an extension and further
elaboration of the old telepathic concepts to explain reciprocal apparitions.)
Aspects such as body image (Webb, 1960), vividness of visual imagery
(Burt, 1968), and psychodynamic workings such as dramatization of the
fear of death and reenactment of birth fantasies (Fodor, 1959), were also
discussed. (See also the publications of J a E [ 19631, Menninger-Lerchenthal
[ 19541, and Rawcliffe [ 19521).
Equally interesting was the treatment of physiological variables by Burt
(1968), Jung (Jung & Pauli, 1955), and Lippman (1953).
Overview
Attempts to conduct systematic research were more frequent in these
years than in previous ones, as can be seen by the appearance of the first
surveys, systematic case collections analyses, and psychophysiological ex-
periments. Conceptual issues continued relatively unchanged, although
there was a slight increase of psychological speculations.
The level of activity in these years was unprecedented. Obvious evidence

are two symposia on the topic in parapsychology conventions (Morris et al.,
1978; Palmer, et al., 1974),and the publication of the first specialized scien-
tifically oriented monographs on the topic (Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984;
Irwin, 1985).
The psychological approach has predominated but not to the complete
exclusion of other ideas. Some writers have continued to present ideas based
34 C. S. Alvarado
on supposed projection of subtle bodies or on other aspects of personality

(e.g., Becker, 1983; Giovetti, 1983; Tart, 1979; Vieira, 1986). This type of
theorizing, however, is in minority in academic circles (for criticisms see
Blackmore, 1 982a; Irwin, 1985; and J. B. Rhine, 1974).' ' Some variations of
these concepts have included ideas of a nonphysical or "higher space" di-
mension, as seen in the papers published by Greene ( 1983), Poynton ( 19-75),
and Whiteman (1975).
A great number of authors have offered psychological concepts to explain
OBEs. Some proposed that the OBE is a defense mechanism designed to
deal with the threat of death (Ehrenwald, 1974), or the loss of love (Reed,
1974). Others discussed the phenomenon in terms of archetypal images
(Fisher, 1975), distortion of the body image (Horowitz, 1970), depersonal-
ization (Whitlock, 1978), lucid dreams (LaBerge, 1985), or a variety of
concepts basically postulating that the OBE is a hallucinatory creation aris-
ing under different psychological factors (e.g., Brent, 1979; Capel, 1978;
Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984; Zusne & Jones, 1982).
Three writers have proposed the most important psychological ideas of
the period. John Palmer (1978) conceptualized the OBE basically as a re-
sponse to a body image change causing a threat to individual identity. Susan
J. Blackmore (1984b) proposed that OBEs were a model of reality created by
the organism using internal cognitive resources when the models dependent
on sensory input were disrupted. Finally, Harvey J. Irwin (1985) empha-
sized attentional cognitive processes and attenuation of somatic sensory
input, as well as a hypothetical synesthetic process accounting for a trans-
formation of one sensory mode experience for another. These ideas were
more detailed than the rest of the above mentioned speculations and pre-
sented testable predictions.
During these years there was also an unprecedented level of research
following some of the above mentioned psychological concepts. In several
surveys researchers explored possible relationships of OBEs to imagery and
attentional capacities (e.g., Blackmore, 1982c, 1987; Irwin, 1980; Myers et
al., 1983), to altered states of consciousnessand related practices and experi-
ences (e.g., Blackmore, 1982b; Kohr, 1980; Palmer, 1979), and to personal-
ity variables (e.g., Irwin, 1981, Jones, Gabbard, & Twemlow, 1984; Myers et
al., 1983; Tobacyk & Mitchell, 1987). In other studies attempts were made
to obtain increasingly detailed information on OBE phenomenological
characteristics (e.g., Alvarado, 1984; Blackmore, 1984a; Giovetti, 1983;
Poynton, 1973, including ESP claims (e.g., Alvarado, 1986a).
Information on demographic aspects (e.g., Kohr, 1980; Palmer, 1979),
and physiological variables such as form of birth (Blackmore, 1983b), and
proneness to migraine (Irwin, 1983), was also collected. '*
Interest in experimentation also followed the predominantly psychologi-
cal approach. Researchers explored ESP scores during claimed laboratory
OBEs (e.g., Harary & Solfvin, 1977; Palmer & Vassar, 1974), as well as
different psychological variables such as expectation, the effect of induction
procedures (e.g., Palmer & Lieberman, 1975; Palmer & Vassar, 1974), and
other factors (e.g., Smith & Irwin, 198 1 ; Nash, Lynn, & Stanley, 1984).
Experimental attempts to measure psychophysiological correlates of the
experience (e.g., Morris et al., 1978; Osis & Mitchell, 1977), and to test in a
physical way (e.g., by vibrations or the detection of electromagnetic activity)
projection models of OBEs have also been published (Morris et al., 1978;
Osis & McCormick, 1980).
Overview
While most of the elements found in previous years were present in the
last period, the amount of serious and organized research and theory build-
ing was unprecedented. The psychological approach predominated in both
conceptual and research developments. Additionally, the first psychological
OBE theories with clearly testable predictions were presented.
Discussion
In this paper I have outlined briefly the trends of over a century of OBE
research and theorization. Although several features have recurred through-
out the periods discussed (such as the use of subtle bodies and psychological
constructs as explanatory concepts), there have been differences in the fre-
quency of systematic and empirical studies in different time periods. Partic-
ularly noticeable are the differences between the more recent years and
previous ones. The modern period has a higher frequency of psychological
concepts and empirical research, and consequently, has seen an increase in
publications on OBEs in parapsychology and in the journals of other disci-
plines (e.g., Nash, Lynn, & Stanley, 1984; Twemlow, Gabbard, & Jones,
1982). This last development suggests that the OBE is no longer of interest
only to parapsychologists but, as other human experiences and altered states
of consciousness, it is beginning to pique the interest of a variety of disci-
plines that deal with anomalous psychological behaviors and reported expe-
riences.
To some extent interest in OBEs in recent years may be seen as the
consequence of conceptual changes during the 1960s and the 1970s in
psychology (e.g., Holt, 1964; Tart, 1969a), and parapsychology (e.g., George
& Krippner, 1984; Honorton, 1977) that brought increased attention and
research on cognitive processes and altered states of consciousness. OBEs
constituted a logical and appropriate subset of the general problem area of
imagery and altered states of consciousness such as dreams, meditation, and
drug-induced states.
Regardless of the reasons for the current shift of interests (and we could
certainly speculate on the increasing influence of occultism in general, as
well as on the impact of oriental philosophy) there may be benefits for
modern researchers in realizing that OBE studies have a long and varied
36 C . S. Alvarado
history. A good grounding in this literature may be useful to the pragmatic
goals of future researchers.
Endnotes
These views are intimately related to ancient concepts of subtle bodies in religious and
occult literatures (e.g., Mead, 1919; Poortman, 195411978) and to speculations on the "seat of
the soul" (e.g., Bruyn, 1982).
These are cases "in which a person who is undergoing an OBE, and finds himself at or
'projects' himself to a particular spot distant from his physical body, has been seen at that very
spot by some person present there" (Gauld, 1982, p. 222).
All the persons mentioned in this paragraph were members of the Society for Psychical
Research (SPR), founded in London in 1882 to study anomalous psychological and physical
phenomena (Gauld, 1968). The ideas mentioned here may be seen in the context of the work
and concepts of some early SPR members regarding the study of "thought-transference"as a
human ability and as the explanation of apparitions of the living and phenomena produced by
mental mediums, as opposed to ideas involving the concepts of subtle bodies and spirit commu-
nication (Cerullo, 1982; Gauld, 1968). Myers was the only leading SPR member to challenge
such concepts in relation to apparitions, particularly reciprocal ones.
For a criticism of some of Bozzano's assumptions and conclusions see de Vesme (1934a,
1934b). Odeberg (1938) seems to agree with Bozzano's methods and concepts.
The study of phenomena that may suggest the possibility of survival of death, such as
communications received through mediums and apparitions of deceased persons, has tradi-
tionally been an area of parapsychological research (for reviews see Gauld, 1982, and Stevenson,
1977).
For criticisms of Osty's views on the grounds that he ignored aspects of OBEs suggestive of
the action of an objective subtle body, and for the general weakness of his arguments and
assumptions see Bozzano (1 93411937) and Mattisien (1932).
' Soon after the First International Conference of ParapsychologicalStudies, held in Utrecht
in 1953, at which Hart presented a few papers (e.g., Hart, 1955),Hart initiated an International
Project on ESP Projection to work on OBEs and apparitions through correspondence with other
researchers (Hart and Collaborators, 1956).
See also C. D. Broad's (1948) remarks on the subject.
Irwin (1985) published several important methodological criticisms of Crookall's work.

Among them, he pointed out that Crookall's classificatory scheme was unsystematic and ex-
tremely subjective.
l o Tart's attention to the psychophysiology of the OBE may be seen as a natural extension of
previous developments in the study of the psychophysiology of diverse altered states of con-
sciousness (e.g., Anand, Chhina, & Singh, 1961; Aserinsky & Kleitman, 1953).
' I Also in the minority were defences of the importance of OBEs to the issue of survival of
bodily death (e.g., Becker, 1983; Crookall, 1973), since most discussions on the topic during this
period were skeptical on the issue (e.g., Blackmore, 1983a; Gauld, 1982; Moore, 1981). An
important exception was Di Simone's (1984) attempts to compare the accounts of a subject's
OBEs with the accounts of a supposed spiritual entity communicating through a medium
relating encounters in a spiritual dimension.
I' This period also presents much research on the so-called near-death experience (e.g.,
Greyson & Stevenson, 1980; Ring, 1980; Sabom, 198 1;Twemlow & Gabbard, 1984- 1985). A
useful overview of the field appears in Greyson and Flynn's (1984) anthology.
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A Methodology for the Objective Study

of Transpersonal Imagery*
WILLIAM BRAUD and MARILYN SCHLITZ

Psyc.hology Laboratory, Mind Science Foundation, 8301 Broadway,
Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas 78209
Abstract-Abundant methodologies already exist for the study ofpreverbal

imagery, in which one's imagery acts upon one's own cellular, biochemical,
and physiological activity. This paper reports a new methodology for the
objective study of transpersonal imagery, in which one person's imagery
may influence the physical reactions of another person. The method in-
volves the instructed generation of specific imagery by one person and the
concurrent measurement of psychophysiological changes in another per-
son who is isolated in a distant room to eliminate all conventional sensori-
motor communication. Thirteen experiments were conducted using this
methodology. A significant relationship was found between the calming or
activating imagery of one person and the electrodermal activity of another
person who was isolated at a distance (overall z = 4.08, p = .000023, mean
effect size = 0.29). Potential artifacts which might account for the results
are considered and discounted. The findings demonstrate reliable and rela-
tively robust anomalous interactions between living systems at a distance.
The effects may be interpreted as instances of an anomalous "causal"
influence by one person directly upon the physiological activity of another
person. An alternative interpretation is one of an anomalous informational
process, combined with unconscious physiological self-regulation on the
part of the influenced person. Additional research is being conducted in an
attempt to increase our understanding of the processes involved, as well as
to learn the various physical, physiological and psychological factors that
may increase or decrease the likelihood of occurrence of the effect.
Introduction
In her book Imagery in Healing (Achterberg, 1985), psychologist Jeanne
Achterberg distinguished two types of imagery which may have positive
impacts upon health. In preverbal imagery, the imagination acts upon one's
own physical being to alter cellular, biochemical, and physiological activity.
The study of such imagery has a long history, and there exist a variety of
successful methodologies for its objective evaluation. The second type of
imagery that Achterberg identified is transpersonal imagery, which "embod-
* A condensed version of this paper was presented at the Second World Conference on
Imagery, Toronto, Canada, June 25-28, 1987.
Acknowledgement. We are grateful to Dr. Dean Radin for his helpful suggestions and com-
ments on this paper.
44 W. Braud and M. Schlitz
ies the assumption that information can be transmitted from the conscious-
ness of one person to the physical substrate of others" (p. 5). She suggested
that the validation of transpersonal imagery must be sought in the more
qualitative types of observational data gathered by anthropologists, theolo-
gians, and medical historians, and in intuitive philosophical speculation.
Indeed, the power of preverbal imagery in influencing one's own chemi-
cal, cellular, physiological and behavioral reactions has been well docu-
mented. We find extensive evidence for such psychosomatic influences in
the areas of dreaming, hypnosis, relaxation, autogenic training, biofeedback,
meditation, therapeutic imagery, mental rehearsal, and placebo effects.
Some of the most exciting (and potentially useful) findings regarding the
influence of imagery on somatic functioning are now being reported by
researchers within the new interdisciplinary field of psychoneuroimmunol-
ogy, in which it is being discovered that individuals, through use of relax-
ation, hypnosis, and imagery techniques, may be able to exert rapid and
quite specific influences upon certain subpopulations of their white blood
cells [see, for example, Hall ( 1984a, 1984b, 1987); Peavey (1982); Schneider,
Smith, & Whitcher (1984)l.
Less well known are the various observations which tend to support the
reality and effectiveness of transpersonal imagery effects. There are, of
course, abundant anecdotes and field observations that the sensations,
thoughts, feelings and images of one person may, under certain conditions,
directly affect the bodily reactions of another person, even when the two
persons are separated by great distance, and when the influenced person is
not aware that an influence attempt is being made. Observations of ostensi-
ble distant mental influence in the context of anthropology have been re-
viewed by Angoff and Barth (1974), Long (1977) and Van de Castle (1977).
The late Eric Dingwall, in his four-volume work, Abnormal Hypnotic Phe-
nomena (1 968), surveyed many cases of putative distant mental influence
which occurred in 19th-century practices of hypnosis (or "mesmerism," as it
was then called). Two of the more interesting of these "higher phenomena of
hypnosis" were (a) community of sensation, in which hypnotized subjects
were reported to have responded appropriately to sensory stimuli presented
to a distantly located hypnotist, and (b) mental suggestion, in which the
hypnotist was alleged to have exerted an influence upon a distant subject's
behavior (while the latter was in a hypnotic "trance") or even to have
induced hypnosis itself at a distance. These phenomena, as well as the results
of more modern hypnotic investigations, have been examined by Honorton
( 1974, 1977). Finally, possible distant mental influence effects occurring
within the context of mental healing have been reviewed by Ehrenwald
( 1977) and by Solfvin (1984).
The possibility of distant somatic effects of imagery is also suggested by
anecdotal reports of various investigators involved in clinical biofeedback
applications who sometimes observed unusual correlations between the
changes in electrophysiological activity of one client and those of another
Objective study of transpersonal imagery 45
client (in group biofeedback training sessions) or between the client's activ-
ity and that of the investigator himself or herself. If such coincident physio-
logical patterns are reliable and replicable, they might be explained most
parsimoniously by assuming that they result from either (a) gross or subtle
external stimuli that influence both persons in the same manner, or (b)
internal rhythms that happen to be in phase in the two persons and interact
with the monitored activities in identical ways. A third possibility, however,
is that at least some proportion of these physiological congruences may be
attributable to transpersonal imagery effects. Such a possibility would be
highly speculative were it not for several reports of experimental findings of
similar interactions between, for example, the electroencephalic (Duane &
Behrendt, 1965; Puthoff & Targ, 1976; Targ & Puthoff, 1974) or autonomic
(Dean, 1966) activity of one person and that of another person, when those
persons were remotely situated, shielded, and the possibility of conventional
energetic and informational exchanges between them had been eliminated.
Indeed, the entire body of research findings in the areas of psychical research
and of parapsychology is relevant to and supportive of the notion that the
mental activity of one person may influence the bodily activity of another
person at a distance. Quite complete and useful reviews of the concepts,
methods, findings, and theories of modern parapsychology may be found in
Edge, Morris, Palmer and Rush ( 1986); Krippner (1977, 1978, 1 982, 1 984);
Nash (1986); and Wolman (1977).
The Present Research Program: Purpose and Overview

In this paper, we describe an objective, quantitative methodology for the
study of transpersonal imagery which allows the investigation of the latter
within the framework of experimental psychology. In addition to the meth-
odology itself, we shall present the promising results of 13 experiments that
we already have conducted in order to test the usefulness of the procedure.
The method involves the instructed generation of specific imagery by one
person, and the concurrent measurement of psychophysiological changes in
another person. Throughout the experiment, the two persons occupy sepa-
rate, isolated rooms, and all conventional sensorimotor communication
between the two persons is eliminated in order to insure that any obtained
effects are truly transpersonal. In a typical experiment, Person A is in-
structed to use specific mental imagery in order to induce a specific physio-
logical change in Person B, who is isolated in a distant room. The expected
psychophysiological effect is assessed by measuring the spontaneous elec-
trodermal activity (skin resistance responses, SRR) of Person B during 20
30-second recording epochs. During 10 of these epochs, interspersed ran-
domly throughout the sequence of 20 epochs, Person A generates imagery
designed to produce a specific somatic effect (decreased sympathetic ner-
vous system activity in some cases, increased sympathetic activation in
other cases); the remaining 10 epochs serve as Control periods during which
Person A does not generate the relevant imagery. Person B is, of course,
unaware of the sequence of the two types of epochs (the sequence is ran-
domly determined) and is also "blind" to the exact starting time of the
experiment, the number and timing of the various periods, etc. Electroder-
ma1 activity is objectively assessed by an electrodermal amplifier interfaced
with an analog-to-digital converter and a microcomputer. The amount of
electrodermal activity during the Imagery epochs is compared with that of
the Control epochs using conventional parametric statistical techniques.
If the experimental protocol just described is not violated, and yet it is
found that significantly greater somatic activity of an appropriate, imagery-
relevant type is found to occur during the Imagery periods than during the
Control periods, we can conclude with confidence that a transpersonal im-
agery effect (TIE) has occurred, and that the results cannot be attributed to
(a) conventional communication channels or cues (since the two parties are
isolated from contact with each other through the use of distant, isolated
rooms), (b) common external signals, common internal rhythms, or rational
inference of the imagerylnonimagery schedule and resultant appropriate
self-regulation (since the imagerylnonimagery schedule is truly randomly
determined and is unknown to Person B), or (c) "chance coincidence"
(since the level of responding to be expected on the basis of chance alone
may actually be determined and compared statistically with the obtained
response levels).
Method
The experiments involved the participation of unpaid male and female

volunteer subjects, ranging in age from 16 to 65 years. Participants were
selected from a pool of volunteers from the San Antonio community who
had learned about the Foundation's experiments through local newspaper
advertisements and articles, notices posted throughout the city, lectures
given by Foundation staff at local colleges and universities, and comments
from other participants, and whose interest in the experiments and time
schedules permitted participation. Approximately equal numbers of males
and females participated in the various studies. In most cases, participants
were not selected on the basis of any special physical, physiological, or
psychological characteristics, and could best be described as "self-selected"
on the basis of their interest in the topics being researched. In only one
experiment were "special" subjects recruited and selected. This was an ex-
periment in which we were interested in whether persons having a greater
"need" for a possible calrning influence would evidence stronger results
than persons without such a need. Therefore, for that experiment, we se-
lected individuals who self-reported symptoms of greater than usual sympa-
thetic autonomic activation-i.e., stress-related complaints, excessive emo-
tionality, excessive anxiety, tension headaches, high blood pressure, ulcers,

or mental or physical hyperactivity. The subjects for this experiment were
also screened in an initial electrodermal activity recording session to guaran-
tee that they did in fact exhibit greater than average sympathetic autonomic
activity.
The persons who served as "influencers" in these experiments (i.e., those
who regulated their own images and intentions in order to influence the
subjects at a distance) were selected from a similar pool of volunteers. In
some experiments, the experimenters themselves served as influencers. In
still other experiments, the influencers were individuals who were interested
in unorthodox healing and who themselves practiced certain mental healing
techniques, such as "therapeutic touch" (see Borelli & Heidt, 1982; Krieger,
1979; Kunz, 1985) or "Reiki healing" (see Schlitz & Braud, 1985). Many of
the influencers were practitioners of various forms of meditation and self-
exploration. In most cases, however, the influencers were simply interested
persons from the local community who wished to give the experiments a try.
The authors served as the experimenters for the series of studies, assisted
in some experiments by two other experimenters, J. C. and H. K. The first
author had extensive research experience in the areas of experimental psy-
chology, physiological psychology, and parapsychology. The second author
had extensive experience in parapsychological and anthropological research.
The third experimenter, J. C., had research experience in the area of nurs-
ing. The fourth experimenter, H. K., was a student at a local college who was
participating in a research practicum at the Foundation.
In all, 337 persons participated in these experiments. Of these partici-
pants, 27 1 served as subjects, 62 as influencers, and 4 as experimenters.
Procedure
Physical Layout. During the experimental sessions, it was essential to guar-
antee that the influencer and the experimenter would not be able to commu-
nicate with the subject via conventional sensorimotor channels. This was
accomplished by situating the experimenter and the influencer in one closed
room, while the subject occupied a distant second room, which was also
closed. Figure 1 illustrates the floor plan of the rooms used in Experiments 1
through 10. The rooms used in Experiments 1 1 through 13 are shown in
Figure 2. The distance (20 meters or more) between the two rooms used in
an experiment, and the presence of several intervening closed doors and
corridors, isolated the participants from possible sensory interaction. Addi-
tionally, verbalization of any information regarding the imagerylnonimag-
ery schedule (see below) by the influencer or the experimenter was not
allowed during the experimental sessions. There were no active micro-
phones in either room, through which participants could communicate. The
headphones through which the participants in the two rooms received re-
quired auditory information were attached to independent electrical circuits
I
IXI
SUBJECT
(Exp 1- 4)
-
INFLUENCER
Fig. 1. Laboratory floor plan showing locations of subject and influencer for Experiments 1
through 10.
so that possible "crosstalk" between two sets of headphones was eliminated

(i.e., it was impossible for one person's headphone to function as a micro-
phone for the other person's headset).
Fig. 2. Laboratory floor plan showing locations of subject and influencer for Experiments 1 1
through 13; subject and influencer rooms are in separate suites of the same building,
separated by an outside corridor and several closed doors.
Subject's Instructions and Activities. Throughout an experimental session,

the subject sat in a comfortable armchair in a dimly illuminated, closed .
room. In Experiments 1 and 3, the subject was exposed to visual and acous-
tic ganzfeld stimulation throughout the session (see Bertini, Lewis, & Wit-
kin, 1964; Schacter, 1976); this was accomplished by having the subject view
a uniform red light field through translucent, hemispherical acetate eye
covers while listening to moderately loud white noise through headphones.
In Experiments 2 and 4, ganzfeld stimulation was not employed; rather, the
subject simply sat quietly in the dim room, with freedom to open or close
the eyes as desired. In Experiments 5 through 13, the subject watched ran-
domly changing patterns of colored lights on a 12-inch display screen 2
meters away, while listening to computer-generated random sounds through
headphones. The subject was instructed to make no deliberate effort to relax
~ or to become more active, but rather to remain in as ordinary a condition as
possible and to be open to and accepting of a possible influence from the
distant influencer whom he or she had already met. The subject remained
unaware of the number, timing or scheduling of the various influence at-
tempts, and was instructed not to try to guess consciously when influence
attempts might be made. The subject was asked to allow his or her thought
50 W. Braud and M.Schlitz
processes to be as variable or random as possible and to simply observe the

various thoughts, images, sensations, and feelings that came to mind with-
out attempting to control, force, or cling to any of them.
Influencer's Instructions and Activities. The influencer sat in a comfortable

chair in front of a polygraph in another closed room. The polygraph pro-
vided a graphic analog readout of the concurrent electrodermal activity of
the distant subject. For half of each session for Experiment 6, this polygraph
was turned off and no feedback was allowed. For all other sessions of all
other experiments, polygraph feedback information about the momentary
physiological activity of the subject was available to the influencer. The
influencer had the option of attending to this polygraph feedback or ignor-
ing it. In most cases, the influencer watched the polygraph tracing through-
out a session. In some cases, the influencer closed his or her eyes and ignored
the polygraph tracing during the actual 30-second imagery or nonimagery
periods (see below), but looked at the tracings following those periods in
order to learn of the success or failure of the influence attempts.
An experimental session contained 20 30-second recording periods or
epochs. Each epoch was signaled to the experimenter and to the influencer
by an auditory signal that could not be heard by the distant subject. Immedi-
ately before each signal, the experimenter exposed a card to the influencer.
This card contained an instruction for the upcoming epoch. The word
"influence" indicated that the next 30-second period was to be an imagery
epoch during which the influencer would attempt to influence the distant
subject; the word "control" indicated a nonimagery or noninfluence period.
The influencer had been instructed beforehand that during each influence
period, he or she was to attempt to influence the electrodermal activity of
the distant subject through the use of self-generated imagery. In some ex-
periments (Experiments 5,6,8, 10 and 1 I), the goal of the imagery influence
attempts was the calming of the distant subject-the reduction of the sub-
ject's sympathetic autonomic nervous system activity and hence the reduc-
tion of the frequency and magnitude of spontaneous skin resistance re-
sponses. In other experiments (Experiments 2, 4, and 7), the goal of the
imagery influence attempts was the activation of the distant subject-an
increase in the subject's sympathetic autonomic nervous system activity and
hence an increase in the frequency and magnitude of spontaneous skin
resistance responses. In still other experiments (Experiments 1, 3, 9, 12 and
13), both calming and activation strategies were used within a single session;
in those experiments, there were 10 calm-aim periods and 10 activate-aim
periods.
During control periods, the influencer attempted not to think about the
subject or about the experiment, and to think of other matters. During
influence periods, the influencer used the following strategies (either alone
or in combination) in an attempt to influence the somatic activity of the
1. The influencer used imagery and self-regulation techniques in order to

induce the intended condition (either relaxation or activation, as de-
manded by the experimental protocol) in hilnsc/f or herse/L and imag-
ined (and intended for) a corresponding change in the distant subject.
2. The influencer imagined the ofllcv- person in appropriate relaxing or
activating settings.
3. The influencer imagined the desired outcomes of the polygraph pen
tracings-i.e., imagined few and small pen deflections for calming pe-
riods and many and large pen deflections for activation periods.
There were rest periods, ranging in duration from 15 seconds to 2 minutes

in the various experiments, between the 30-second recording epochs. Dur-
ing those periods, the influencer was able to rest and to prepare for the
upcoming epoch.
Sc./lc~dlrlir~,q
c?f'Ir!fllrcvlc*~
.-lttc.r~~pt.s.In order to eliminate the possible influ-
ence of common internal rhythms and to remove the possibility that the
influencer and the subject just happened to respond at whim in the same
manner and at the same times, it was necessary to ji,rrnal/j7 assign to the
influencer specific times for engaging in imagery: such assignments had to
be truly random and, of course, could not be known to the subject (lest the
subject self-regulate his or her own physiology on the basis of such knowl-
edge. in order to confirm the expectations of the experimenter). The sub-
ject's blindness with respect to the imagery/nonimagery sequence was
maintained by keeping all participants (including the experimenter) blind
regarding the sequence until preparatory interactions with the subject had
been completed and the session was about to begin. Only then, when the
subject and the influencer/experimenter team were stationed in their sepa-
rate rooms, did the experimenter become aware of the proper epoch se-
quence for that session. In Experiments I and 3, the epochs were scheduled
in a truly random manner by means of an electronic binary random event
generator (see Schmidt. 1970). In Experiments 2 and 4. the epochs were
randomly scheduled by means of a set of 20 cards ( 10 influence and 10
control cards) which were shuffled by the experimenter 20 times before each
session. In the remainder of the experiments. the epochs were scheduled in
an ABBA or BAAB sequence: the experimenter learned whether a particular
session's sequence was to be ABBA or BAAB by consulting a sealed enve-
lope immediately before the beginning of each session. The envelopes had
been prepared beforehand by someone who had no further role in the
experiments. The "preparer" had prepared each session's sequence envelope
through the use of a table of random numbers. with the only restriction for
its use being the occurrence of equal numbers of ABBA and BAAB se-
quences in an experiment. [We used an ABBA design in order to minimize
possible progressive error in the experiments: such a design allows any
progressive error (i.e.. the contribution of any extraneous variable which
varies systematically with time) which may have autonomic concomitants

to contribute equally to the A and B periods, thus avoiding a biasing contri-
bution to any one condition alone.]
Monitoring of Electrophvsiological Activity. The subject's sympathetic auto-
nomic nervous system activity was assessed by monitoring his or her sponta-
neous skin resistance responses (SRR) on a continuous basis throughout the
20 minutes of an experimental session. In Experiments 1 and 3, SRR activ-
ity was recorded by means of silver/silver chloride electrodes (7.0 mm in
diameter) with partially conductive electrode gel, attached by adhesive col-
lars to the subject's right palm. Phasic electrodermal activity was recorded
by means of a Stoelting Model SA 1473 GSR amplifier and a Stoelting
Model 22656 Multigraphic Recorder. Sensitivity was adjusted so that an
internal calibrating signal of 1.0 kilohm resulted in a 10.0 mm recording pen
deflection. In Experiments 2 and 4, a Lafayette Model 76405 multiplex
GSR amplifier was used, along with the Stoelting chart-mover/penwriter
described above; chrome-plated stainless steel finger electrodes (each with a
surface area of 585 mm 2 ) without electrode paste were attached to the first
and third fingers of the left hand by means of Velcro bands. In Experiments
5, 6, and 7, the Lafayette amplifier was used along with a Harvard Appara-
tus chart mover and pen writers; the steel/pasteless finger electrodes were
attached to the subject's right hand. In Experiments 8 through 13, the
Lafayette amplifier and Harvard chart recorder were used, but with silver/
silver chloride electrodes and partially conductive gel; electrodes were at-
tached to the subject's right palm. For Experiments 1 through 4, electroder-
ma1 activity was evaluated by blind-scoring of pen tracings by someone who
had no other role in the experiments.' For Experiments 5 through 13,
scoring was automated through the addition of an analog-to-digital con-
verter interfaced with a microcomputer. This equipment sampled the sub-
ject's SRR activity 10 times each second for the 30 seconds of a recording
epoch and averaged these measures, providing what is virtually a measure of
the area under the curve described by the fluctuation of electrodermal activ-
ity over time (i.e., the mathematically integrated activity). The computer
provided a paper printout of the results at the end of the session. For all
experiments, with the exception of Experiment 13, a 5-minute adaptation/
habituation period for the subject preceded the actual experimental session.
For Experiment 8, other physiological measures were recorded in addition
to electrodermal activity (viz., pulse rate, hand temperature, breathing rate,
and electromyographic activity of the frontalis muscle group); those mea-
sures, however, will not be described in this paper.
Assessment o f Phj?siological Responses. Each session of each experiment
yielded 10 assessments of electrodermal (SRR) activity recorded during an
influencer's attempts to influence that activity in a specific direction using
specific imagery, and 10 assessments of activity recorded in the absence of
such attempts. (The sole exception to this occurred in Experiment 13, in
which there was a total of only 12 recording e p ~ c h for

s each session, rather
than the usual 20.) Our evaluation of whether the influencer's imagery
influenced the subject's somatic activity was carried out on a session-by-ses-
sion basis, and involved a determination of the proportion of somatic activ-
ity in the prescribed direction which occurred during the influence periods,
relative to its occurrence during control periods. For each session, we calcu-
lated the total activity for that session by summing the SRR scores for all 20
30-second recording epochs (or for all 12 epochs, in the case of Experiment
13). Next, we calculated the activity that occurred during the 10 30-second
influence or imagery epochs of a session by summing those I0 scores; sepa-
rately, we calculated the activity occurring during the 10 30-second control
(i.e., noninfluence or nonimagery) epochs of the session by summing those
I0 scores. Dividing the influence and control sums, respectively, by the total
activity yielded two activity proportions. In the absence of a transpersonal
imagery effect (TIE), each of these two proportions would be expected to
approximate 0.50; i-e., on the basis of chance alone, half of a subject's total
electrodermal activity would be expected to occur during the influence
periods and half during the control periods. A significant departure of these
proportions from 0.50, in the appropriate predicted direction, would con-
stitute evidence for the presence of a transpersonal imagery effect.
Results
We have completed 13 experiments using the methodology described
above. Experiments 1 , 2, 3, 4, and 1 1 were "demonstration studies" con-
ducted to test the effectiveness of the method with different samples of
subjects and influencers. In the remaining eight experiments, we sought to'
determine how the transpersonal imagery effect might be influenced by
various psychological factors. Since our purpose in this paper is to describe
the method itself, we shall not present the rationales, details, or specific
outcomes of the individual experiments, but will limit our remarks to the
common features of the studies and to their overall results.
In each experiment, the primary method of analysis involved a compari-
son of the proportion of electrodermal activity which occurred during the
imagery influence epochs of a session with the proportion expected on the
basis of chance alone, i.e., 0.50. Chi-square goodness of fit tests indicated
that the distribution of obtained session scores did not differ significantly
from a normal distribution; therefore, parametric statistical tests were used
for their evaluation. Single-mean t tests were used to compare the obtained
session scores with an expected mean of 0.50.
Summary statistics for the 1 3 experiments are presented in Table I.
For experiments (such as Experiments 5 and 13) in which significant
differences obtained between different subconditions and/or in cases in
which a priori decisions had been made to evaluate certain groups sepa-
rately, scores are presented for each subcondition; otherwise, scores of sub-
54 W. Braud and M. Schiitz
TABLE 1
Quantitative summary of transpersonal imagery experiments
Exper- Number of Hit Mean ?h

iment Influencer(s) Sessions Sessions Influence 1 p z d Type of Study
- -
Experimenter Demonstration
M. M. Demonstration
10 unselected Demonstration
volunteers
10 unselected Demonstration
volunteers
Experimenters Need (greater)4
Experimenters Need (le~ser)~
24 unselected Feedback
volunteers (within)'
Experimenters Blockings
Experimenters SpecificityS
Experimenters Direction6
Experimenters Magnitude
(~ithin)~
3 healing Demonstration
practitioners (Reiki
rneth~d)~
5 selected IDS pilot
volunteers (within)'
8 selected IDS confirmation
volunteers single seed
(~ithin)~
8 selected IDS confirmation
volunteers multiple seeds
(within)'
conditions are combined and presented for the experiment as a whole. The
number of sessions contributing to each experiment varied from 10 to 40.
The single-mean t tests produced independently significant evidence for the
transpersonal imagery effect (i.e., an associated p of 0.05 or less) in 6 of the
possible 15 cases, yielding an experimental success rate of 40%. The experi-
mental success rate expected on the basis of chance alone is, of course, 5%.
Results for the 13 experiments are presented in another form in Figure 3.
For this presentation, we calculated z scores and effect size scores for the
overall results of each experiment. The z scores were calculated according to
the Stouffer method [see Rosenthal ( 1 984)] which involves converting the
studies' obtained p values into z scores, summing these z scores, and divid-
ing by the square root of the number of studies being combined; the result is
itself a z score that can be evaluated by means of an associated p value. For
Figure 3, this method was used to provide an overall or combined z score for
each of the 13 experiments, for ease of graphical portrayal. The effect sizes
shown in Figure 3 are "Cohen d" measures which are recommended by
those interested in meta-analyses of scientific experiments [see Cohen
(1969); Glass, McGaw, & Smith (198 1); Rosenthal (1984)l; the effect sizes
Fig. 3. Overall z scores and effect sizes (Cohen's d measures) for the 13 successive transpersonal
imagery experiments.
were calculated according to the formula d = t\il/n. These effect sizes varied
from -0.24 to 0.97, with a mean d = 0.29, and compare favorably with
effect sizes typically found in traditional behavioral research.
A global analysis of the 13 experiments is presented in Table 2. There
were 15 assessments of the transpersonal imagery effect. Contributing to
those assessments were 323 sessions conducted with 27 1 different subjects,
62 influencers, and 4 experimenters. Six of the 15 assessments (40%) were
independently significant statistically (p < .05); this is to be compared with
the 5% experimental success rate expected by chance. Fifty-seven percent of
the sessions were successful (i.e., these were sessions in which the influence
imagery epochs accounted for more than 50% of the subject's electrodermal
activity during activation attempts and less than 50% of the total activity
during calming attempts); this is to be compared with the 50% session
success rate to be expected on the basis of chance. The overall mean magni-
tude of the TIE for all experiments differed from chance expectation by
I
3.73%; when only the six independently significant experiments are consid-
ered, the obtained mean TIE had a magnitude of 8.33%. The two most
important entries of Table 2 are the combined z score (for the experimental
series as a whole, calculated according to the Stouffer method) and the mean
effect size (Cohen's d, for the entire series). The overall z is 4.08 and has an
associated p = ,000023; the average effect size for all 13 experiments is 0.29.
Inspection of Table 1, Figure 3, and Table 2 indicates that the effect
occurring in these 13 experiments is a relatively consistent, replicable, and
robust one. It should also be pointed out that, in terms of its magnitude, the
effect is not a negligible one. Under certain conditions, the transpersonal
imagery effect can compare favorably with an imagery effect upon one's
TABLE 2
Summary statistics for transpersonal imagery experiments
Total Psi Number of Number of Number of

Experiments Assessments Sessions Subjects Influencers
Mean Percent
Influence
Successful Successful Combined Overall Mean Effect
Studies Sessions All Successful z P Size (d)
- - - - -
6/15 (40%) 1831321 (57%) 3.73% 8.33% 4.08 .000023 .29

(MCE = 5%) (MCE = 50%)
own physiological activity. Although it is not reviewed in this paper, an

autonomic self-control experiment was conducted immediately following
Experiment 5. In the self-control study, volunteer subjects attempted to
calm themselves using relaxing imagery during 10 30-second periods, and
their SRR activity during those periods was compared with activity levels
during 10 interspersed nonimagery control periods. The strength of the
self-control imagery effect in that study (an 18.67% deviation) did not differ
significantly from the strongest transpersonal imagery effect of Experiment
5 (a 10% deviation).
Discussion
The results of this series of 13 experiments indicate that the present
methodology is effective for the objective assessment of transpersonal imag-
ery effects. It was demonstrated that the psychophysiologicalactivity of one
person varied, to a significant degree, with the imagery content of another
person. The experimental design guaranteed that the effect could not be
attributed to conventional sensorimotor cues, common external stimuli,
common internal rhythms, or chance coincidence. A number of additional
potential artifacts can be mentioned here and can be effectively dismissed.
I . Thejndings are the result of recording errors and motivated misreadings
of polygraph records. This explanation is rejected on the basis of blind-scor-
ing of polygraph records (see Figure 4 for sample record) and, later, by the
use of completely automated assessment techniques and computer-scoring
of response activity.
2. The subjects knew beforehand when influence attempts were to be made
and "cooperated" by changing their own autonomic activity when appro-
priate. This explanation may be rejected because the subjects were not told
when or how many influence attempts would be made, nor was the experi-
menter aware of the influence/control epoch schedule until all preliminary
Fig. 4. Sample of polygraph tracing of electrodermal activity.
interactions with the subject had been completed. Subjects did not know of
the existence of, or have access to, the envelopes containing schedule infor-
mation.
3. Subjects could have become aware during the experimentul sessions
themselves of when influence epochs were in progress and could have altered
their own physiological reactions during those periods. This possibility was
eliminated by isolating the subject from any such cues from the influencer.
Subject and influencer were in separate, closed rooms at least 20 meters
apart. No auditory cues could have impinged upon the subject to indicate
when recording epochs were in progress or whether such epochs were influ-
ence or control periods. Neither the influencer nor the experimenter made
any vocalizations that could have informed the subject about whether influ-
ence or control periods were in progress. The epoch-indicating tones heard
by the influencer and experimenter, and the random tones heard by the
subject, were provided by independent audio systems which eliminated the
possibility of electrical crosstalk and also the possibility of headphones
functioning as microphones and inadvertently cueing the subject.
4. Dzflerences in autonomic activity bet ween influence and control periods
are due to systematic error-i.e., some progressive change in electrodermal
activity over time. This objection may be rejected. Progressive (time-based)
errors could have been contributed by (a) changes in equipment sensitivity
as the equipment warmed up, (b) changes in electrodermal activity due to
adaptation or habituation to the experimental environment, or (c) changes
in electrodermal activity due to polarization of the recording electrodes.
Equipment was allowed to warm up for 15 to 20 minutes prior to the
beginning of a session and therefore had become thermally stable before the
experiment began. The use of electrodes with large surface areas, and the use
of a constant-current electrodermal recording device reduced the possibility
of polarization problems. The use of silver/silver chloride electrodes and
partially conductive paste in other experiments further minimized a polar-
ization problem. A special analysis of the data from Experiment 5 is relevant
to the habituation question. Statistical evaluation of total electrodermal
activity for the first halves vcrsrrs the second halves of the sessions indicated
no evidence of an habituation effect. This absence of habituation could be
58 W. Braud and M.Schlitz
attributed to the use of an adaptation period before the actual recording

session began, and to the use of constantly changing auditory and visual
stimulation of the subject (i.e., the use of the random tones and colored
lights display). Thus, there was no progressive change in electrodermal activ-
ity due to any of the three possible processes mentioned above. However,
even if a progressive change had occurred, the use of the ABBA counterbal-
anced design and the use of truly random influence/control sequencing in
other experiments would have prevented this error from contributing dif-
ferentially to influence versus control epochs.
5. Thefindings are due to arbitrary selection of data. This explanation may
be rejected since total numbers of subjects and trials were prespecified, and
the analyses reported include all recorded data.
6. The results are due to-fraudon the part oj'the subjects. This explanation
may be rejected. The subjects were unselected volunteers; it may be as-
sumed that such subjects had no motive for trickery. However, even if a
subject were motivated to cheat, such an opportunity was not present.
Cheating would have required knowledge of a session's influence/control
epoch sequence and of the precise starting time for the session, or the
assistance of an accomplice. Both of these requirements were eliminated.
7. The results are due to-fi-audon the part of the experimenters. No experi-
ment, however sophisticated, can ever be absolutely safe from experimenter
fraud. Even if an experiment were controlled by an outside panel of disinter-
ested persons, a hostile critic could still argue that collusion was involved.
The imagined extent of such a conspiracy would be limited only by the
imagination and degree of paranoia of the critic. We can only state that we
used multiple-experimenter designs so that one experimenter's portion of
the experiment served as a kind of control for another experimenter's por-
tion. Only the successful replication of these findings by investigators in
other laboratories would reduce experimenter fraud to a non-issue. We hope
that this report will stimulate such replication attempts.
We conclude that our results cannot be attributed to any of the various
potential artifacts or confounds mentioned above, and therefore are not
spurious. Rather, the results reflect an anomalous psychophysical interac-
tion between two individuals separated from one another in space.
A Range of Reactions
In addition to responding physiologically in a manner consistent with the
imagery of the distant influencer, subjects often reported subjective re-
sponses which corresponded to the influencers' images. Sometimes these
reports were of relatively vague feelings of relaxation or activation. How-
ever, there were also reports of extremely specijc thoughts, feelings, and
sensations which strikingly matched the imagery employed by the in-
fluencer. For example, a subject reported spontaneously that during the
session he had a very vivid impression of the influencer coming into his
room, walking behind his chair, and vigorously shaking the chair; the im-
pression was so strong that he found it difficult to believe that the event had
not happened in reality. This session was one in which the influencer had
employed just such an image in order to activate the subject from afar.
Subjects sometimes spontaneously reported mentation which corre-
sponded closely to that of the influencer or the experimenter, even when
that mentation was incidental and not employed consciously as part of an
influence strategy. For example, at the beginning of one session, the experi-
menter remarked to an influencer that the electrodermal tracings of the
subject were very precise and regimented and that they reminded him of the
German techno-pop instrumental musical group, Kraftwerk. When the ex-
perimenter went to the subject's room at the end of the session, the subject's
first comment was that early in the session, for some unknown reason,
thoughts of the group Kraftwerk had come into her mind. The subject could
not have overheard the experimenter's earlier comment to the influencer.
Such correspondences were not rare.
There appeared to be a continuum of reactions possible for the subject. At
one extreme, there would be no resemblance whatsoever between the imag-
ery of the influencer and the imagery and physiological reactions of the
subject. Next on the continuum would be cases in which autonomic reac-
tions occurred which were appropriate to the influencer's imagery, but the
subject was completely unaware of those reactions. Next were appropriate
physiological reactions of which the subject was only vaguely aware, and
next would be reactions accompanied by very definite subjective experi-
ences. Closer to the "resemblance" end of this continuum would be cases of
reactions accompanied by images in the subject which were virtually identi-
cal to those of the influencer. Even closer to the resemblance end would be
cases of appropriate electrodermal activity, quite similar imagery, plus be-
havioral and/or gross physical changes consistent with the influencer's im-
agery. An example of the latter occurred in a subject who experienced a
dramatic reddening of the face and neck during a session. Other subjects
experienced muscle tremors, tingling of body parts, awareness of a pounding
heart and rushing blood, a felt need to take deep breaths, decreased aware-
ness of body parts, etc. Although our overall statistical findings leave no
doubt that the subjects' recorded autonomic reactions were in fact related to
the imagery of the influencers, such certainty is not possible in the case of
these subjective or physical reactions, since no time-correlated records of
those latter reactions were kept. Some of the physical symptoms observed
may simply have been bodily conditions that were present all along, but
which were brought to the subjects' awareness more forcefully during the
experimental sessions due to the demand characteristics of the study. How-
ever, some reactions may have been directly influenced or even brought
about by the influencers' imagery. We intend to pursue this issue more
analytically in future studies in which the temporal distribution of such
reactions will be monitored by having subjects verbalize their reactions as
they are occurring, or indicate unusual or noteworthy feelings by pressing a
button that will mark an event channel of the polygraph. This will allow a
determination of whether particular experiences or reactions of subjects are
"time-locked" to specific images used by influencers during the sessions. A
similar monitoring of the details of the influencers' imagery would permit a
determination of the most and least effective forms of imagery, and could
teach us a great deal about the varieties and manifestations of transpersonal
imagery.
Some Preliminary Findings

We indicated earlier that we did not intend to describe specific details of
the various 13 experiments in this paper. However, it does seem appropriate
to mention some of our preliminary findings and tentative conclusions at
this point.
The transpersonal imagery effect (TIE) is a relatively reliable and robust

phenomenon; this conclusion is based upon overall statistical results.
The magnitude of the effect is not trivial, and under certain conditions
it compares favorably with the magnitude of a self-regulation effect.
The ability to manifest the effect is apparently widely distributed in the
population. Sensitivity to the effects appears to be normally distributed
among the 271 volunteer subjects tested in these experiments. Alto-
gether, 62 different influencers were able to produce the effect, with
varying degrees of success. Many persons were able to produce the
effect, including unselected volunteers attempting it for the first time.
More practiced individuals seem able to produce the effect more con-
sistently. There are indications of improvements with practice for some
in fluencers.
The TIE can occur at a distance, typically 20 meters; greater distances
have not yet been explored.
Subjects with a greater need to be influenced (i.e., those for whom the
influence is more beneficial) seem more susceptible to the effect.
Immediate, trial-by-trial analog sensory feedback is not essential to the
occurrence of the effect; intention/visualization of the desired outcome
is effective.
The TIE can occur without the subject's knowledge that such an influ-
ence is being attempted.
It may be possible for the subject to block or prevent an unwanted
influence upon his or her own physiological activity; psychological
shielding strategies in which one visualizes protective surrounding
shields, screens, or barriers may be effe~tive.~
Generally, our volunteer participants have not evidenced concern over
the idea of influencing or being influenced by another person.
The TIE may generalize to other physiological measures (such as heart
rate), but the effect may also be intentionally focused or restricted to
1 1. The TIE does not always occur. The reasons for the absence of a signifi-
cant effect in some experiments of a series which is otherwise successful
are not clear. We suspect that the likelihood of a successful TIE may
depend upon the presence of certain psychological conditions, in both
influencer and subject (and perhaps even in the experimenter), which
are not always present. Possible success-enhancing factors may include
belief, confidence, positive expectation, and appropriate motivation.
Possible success-hindering factors may include boredom, absence of
spontaneity, poor mood of influencer or subject, poor interactions or
poor rapport between influencer and subject, and excessive egocentric
effort (excessive pressure or striving to succeed) on the part of partici-
pants. We suspect that the effect occurs most readily in subjects whose
nervous systems are relatively "labile" (i.e., characterized by free vari-
ability) and are momentarily free from external and internal con-
straints. Perhaps fullness of intention and intensity or vividness of visu-
alization in the influencer facilitate the effect.
Additional research is needed to determine the validity of these conclu-

sions, and to explore more thoroughly the various physiological and psycho-
logical factors which are favorable or antagonistic to the occurrence of
the TIE.
Implications and Applications
The methodology employed in these experiments reveals that, under cer-

tain conditions, mental imagery does indeed have a transpersonal aspect.
The results suggest a fundamental inter-connectedness among people
through which the transpersonal imagery effect may be mediated. The find-
ings provide an additional illustration of the power of the imagination. The
method extends research possibilities for the further laboratory study of
imagery, transpersonal functioning, psychic functioning, emotional conta-
gion, and other related processes.
If the effects of transpersonal imagery prove to be sufficiently strong and
robust, it is not inconceivable that the phenomenon could be practically
applied. Possible applications include the use of transpersonal imagery as an
adjunct in medical and psychological healing practices; as an aid in therapy,
counseling, and training for biofeedback, hypnosis, and meditation; and as
an additional educational tool. Each of the processes just mentioned could
conceivably be facilitated in one person (the learner or client) if appropriate
and powerful images are held concurrently in the mind of another person
(the teacher or therapist).
We hope this presentation of our methodology and preliminary findings
will prompt other researchers and practitioners to conduct further experi-
mental, theoretical, and applied investigations of the important but rela-
tively ignored phenomenon of transpersonal imagery.
Endnotes
' The scorer measured, to the nearest millimeter, the amplitudes of all skin resistance re-
sponses greater than 2 mm. The amplitudes of all reactions during a 30-second epoch were
summed, yielding a total SRR activity score for that period. This was done for each of the 20
30-second trial epochs. The trial sequence was then decoded and the SRR activity was summed
for the 10 control and for the 10 influence periods. The scorer, of course, had been blind during
the measurement phase.
* This tentative conclusion derives from certain segments of Experiment 7; the reader should
consult Braud, Schlitz, Collins and Klitch (1985) for details.
This tentative conclusion derives from certain segments of Experiment 8; see Braud, Schlitz,
Collins and Klitch (1 985) for further details.
In Experiment 5, we studied the influence of the strength of "need" or motivation; for

further details see Braud and Schlitz ( 1983).
For additional information about Experiments 6, 7, and 8, see Braud, Schlitz, Collins and
Klitch (1985).
In Experiment 9, we sought to determine whether increments or decrements in SRR activity

might be easier to produce via distant mental influence; in Experiment 10, we sought to
determine whether the magnitude of a distant mental influence effect could be self-modulated
by the influencer. Detailed results of these experiments will be published at a later date.
'The influencers for Experiment 1 1 were practitioners of a Reiki healing method; see Schlitz
and Braud (1985) for details.
Experiments 12 and 13 were conducted to examine the possible role of "intuitive data
sorting" (IDS) in these experiments; details may be found in Braud and Schlitz (1988).
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Explorat~on
Experiments Investigating the Influence of Intention

on Random and Pseudorandom Events*
D EAN R A D I N ~
Princt7ton Univer.sit.v, Princeton, NJ 08544
and
JE SS IC A UTT'S
Univer.silj~c?/'Cu/ifi)rniu,Davis, C:4 9.56 16
Abstract-Eight of 27 experiments using a random event generator pro-

vided statistical evidence supporting a claimed correlation between inten-
tion and the distribution of random events. Twelve control tests produced
results conforming closely to chance expectation.
Introduction
Over the last three decades, some 68 researchers have reported more than
800 experiments investigating the possibility that people may have an ability
to influence simple random systems solely through the application of men-
tal intention (Radin & Nelson, 1987; Radin & Nelson, in press). Overall, the
results of these experiments provide evidence for the existence of a correla-
tion between intention and the statistical behavior of electronic random
event generators (REG). The claimed effects are relatively weak in absolute
magnitude, and are evidenced by small shifts of various distribution param-
eters from chance expectation (usually the mean or the variance). In such
experiments, participants attempt to influence sequences of random or
pseudorandom events produced by electronic REGS by assigned or opera-
tionally defined mental intention. REGS are based upon truly random
events such as radioactive decay or electronic noise, or use pseudorandom
algorithms seeded with truly random numbers.
One of the first investigations of the possible influence of intention on
radioactive decay rates was reported by Beloff and Evans ( 196 1 ). They asked
people to alternatively increase or decrease the count rate of a Geiger
* This paper is a revised version of a technical report presented by the first author at a
conference in 198 1 (Radin, 1982). Prompted by Schmidt's ( 1987) reference to that report in this
Journal, we decided to reanalyze and publish the data reported in the Radin (1982) paper,
including several. previously unpublished experiments performed with the same random event
generator.
t Present address: Contel Technology Center, 15000 Conference Center Drive, P.O. Box
108 14, Chantilly, VA 2202 1-3808.
66 D. adi in and J . Utts
counter subjected to a source of alpha particles. The study was not statisti-
cally successful. Participants in several other studies in the 1960's had vary-
ing degrees of success in attempting to influence alpha, beta, and gamma
particles (e.g., Chauvin & Genthon, 1 965).
In the late 1960's, Helmut Schmidt developed a random event generator
(REG) based upon the random waiting times between successive emission
of beta particles from strontium 90 (e.g., Schmidt, 1970, 197 1). Schmidt's
REG generated random events by stopping a fast (one megahertz) binary
counter when a Geiger tube detected a beta particle. Since radioactive
sources theoretically emit particles at random time intervals, the probability
that a binary switch would stop at a " 1" would be the same as a "0."
The present paper reports a series of experiments conducted using an
REG designed and constructed by Schmidt, and kindly loaned to the first
author. In the studies described below, the random element in the REG was
based upon the waiting times between successive emissions of gamma parti-
cles from radioactive ore (pitchblende). Volunteers were asked to concen-
trate on audio and/or visual feedback in a task that, if successful, would
affect the statistical properties of the random events.
Method
Random Event Generator
The test machine is illustrated in Figures I and 2. The functions of the
machine are controlled by a microprocessor (INTEL 8035) and several
external switches and controls. Data reported in the studies below were
automatically collected by the microprocessor and stored in a memory chip
(INTEL 27 16 PROM).' The automatic data recording method enabled
the experimenter to double-check and allow independent verification of
the data.
To prevent a participant from erasing the results of a poor run by turning
the machine's power off during such a run, the microprocessor was pro-
grammed to increment the data storage counter at the beginning of each
run, and record this number in the PROM. Thus, if the power was turned
off, the data chip would record a zero score in that memory slot. Later, when
the experimenter read the run scores off the data chip, the empty memory
slots would be immediately a ~ p a r e n t . ~
The face of the machine shows 16 lamps arranged in a circle (Figure I).
When the microprocessor is reset, and the "PUSH" button is pressed, a
program on a PROM chip starts running in the "direct" mode or "seed"
mode, depending on how an external switch has been set.
Direct Mode. In the "direct" mode of generating random events, lamps
starting at the top of the circle are sequentially illuminated in the clockwise
(CW) direction at a rate of 4 Hz such that one light is lit at any one time.
With each jump, a "hit" counter records the total number of CW steps.
Random and pseudorandom events 67
/.Mode Sw~tch
DIRECT
0 O 0
SEEDNUMBER
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
r
J ub
Lamp
0
0 0 0 Test vs Pract~ceSwitch
0 PLAY
LED Test Lamp -'
0 0
S t a n Button <uSH RESET
Fig. I . Front view of random event generator
microprocessor, which stops the CW pattern of the lights and begins a

counter-clockwise (CCW) sequence. A "miss" counter records the number
of CCW steps. When another gamma particle is detected, the lights start
moving CW again, and so on.
This alternating CW-CCW illumination sequence is repeated until a pre-
specified number (e.g.. 16, 32, 64) of CW-CCW pairs have been completed.
A thumbwheel switch on the face of the machine is used to specify the
number of pairs. At the end of one run of say. 16 pairs, an LED display
shows the total number of CW and CCW steps and the data is stored in the
memory chip.
Scod Aloc/o. In this mode, a 19-bit seed is generated by stopping a one
megahertz counter when the Geiger tube detects a gamma particle. The
68 D. Radin and J. Utts
Fig. 2. Inside view of random event generator, viewed from the back.
microprocessor uses this 19-bit seed to initiate a sequence of 19-bit pseu-

dorandom numbers such that the sequence contains every possible 19-bit
number. This particular algorithm generates over a half million different
numbers before r e ~ e a t i n g The
. ~ four least significant bits of each pseudo-
random number are used to determine one number in the range 1 to 16.
During test runs, numbers are generated at a typical rate of 8 per second.
With each generated random number (RN), a light jumps CW until RN = 3
has been obtained. Then the lights move CCW until a R N = 12 has been
generated. This process continues until 16 CW-CCW pairs have been com-
pleted.
As in the direct method, the experimental participant tries t o make the

lights move CW more than CCW, thus extending the time periods of C W
illumination and shortening the periods of CCW illumination.
Note that both methods have a built-in control feature-reversing the
lamp illumination direction on successive "hits" (i.e., gamma particle in the
direct mode and a specified pseudorandom number in the seed mode). For
this control to be defeated, a long-waiting-time followed by short-waiting-
time periodicity must be systematically present throughout all runs. Any
such periodicities should become immediately apparent upon running con-
trol tests in which the REG is set up to run without human intervention.
Studies I , 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 (described below) employed such control tests.
In addition to the flashing lights, audio feedback was provided by a tone

generator. Whenever the lights started moving CW, the tone generator pro-
duced a gong-like tone. This tone persisted until the lights started moving
CCW, then no tone was generated. Audio feedback was provided through
headphones connected to the test machine.
In all of the experiments reported here, rather than show CW-CCW mo-
tions, an optional feedback mode was employed, which was to show C W
motion as usual, but no motion instead of CCW motion. This feedback was
chosen because in pilot tests it was found to be less distracting than the
constant motion provided in the CW-CCW feedback.
The subject's task, then, was to try to maintain the CW "hit" state for as
long as possible and the stopped "miss" state for as short a time as possible.
The visual task was to keep the lights moving, and the audio task, to keep
the sound going.
Comparison oJ'Dirocb/and Soc>dModc>..s.

In one respect, the seed mode is superior to the direct mode in generating
random events because it relies upon a mathematical algorithm rather than
a naturally occurring random event. Compared to a Geiger tube, for exam-
ple, an algorithm is relatively insensitive to extraneous radiation and elec-
trical disturbances. However, the deterministic nature of pseudorandom
number generation makes interpretation of successful experiments some-
what more complex. Because an algorithm completely determines the re-
sults of a run once the starting seed has been selected, it would seem that any
mental effort applied during a seed mode run would have to be focused
"backwards" in time in order to influence the selection of a favorable seed.
Although the existence of such a backwards effect defies common sense,
mathematical models have been proposed that support such a focusing
concept and predict the effect to operate backwards in time as efficiently as
in present time (Schmidt, 1975, 1976, 1978).
Another way of interpreting positive results observed in the seed mode is
70 D. Radin and J . Utts
to postulate that precognition is the mediating factor. Precognition4 would

be used to select favorable, future moments in which to start a seed mode
run. Under this interpretation, if a person could "see" the result of a future
run before actually starting it, he or she would simply wait for a propitious
time that would result in selection of a particular seed, which would in turn
produce the desired result (e.g., more hits than misses). An analysis of
existing RNG experiments provides some support for the precognition in-
terpretation (May, Radin, Hubbard, Humphrey, & Utts, 1986).
A third interpretation is that positive effects are due to subtle strategies
developed by the subjects, consciously or unconsciously, that somehow take
advantage of inherent periodicities in pseudorandom number sequences.
Such strategies, even if they were possible to develop and apply systemati-
cally, could not be used with the present REG because the selection of the
seed number is based upon a truly random event, i.e., radioactive decay.
And as we have mentioncd above, once the seed is selected, the rest of the
random generation process is completely determined. Thus, no normal
strategy could be employed to influence results produced in the seed mode.
and Stntistic,al Mothodc

IIj~pothc~,sr.v
The hypothesis for each experiment was simple: If intention can affect the
distribution of random events, then the total number of CW steps, defined
as hits in many of these experiments. would be greater than the total number
of CCW steps. This hypothesis was tested with the formula5
( H -M)V2N
Z=
V(H + M - ~ N ) ( H+ M ) '
where II = total number of CW counts, M = total number of CCW counts,
N = total number of samples in the CW direction16and Z is a standard
normal deviate. Because a directional hypothesis was postulated, probabili-
ties are reported one-tailed.
Results
Table 1 summarizes results of all experiments conducted by the first
author using the same REG. They range from Study 1, conducted in No-
vember, 1980, to Study 12, conducted in December, 1983. Short descrip-
tions of each test follow:
The first experiment consisted of the first author (DR) as subject, running
the REG for a preset total of 60 direct mode runs of 16 CW-CCW pairs per
run, in three daily sessions of 20 runs each. This test was performed in the
evenings, in a secure location, in a relaxed setting, and with no distractions.
After each run the number of hits and misses was manually r e ~ o r d e d . ~
Random and pseudorandom events
TABLE l
Results of experimental and control tests
Subject Mode Condition Hits Misses Runs" Z
Stud-v I DR h
direct E' 14896 13644 60 1.90t
DR direct C 13135 13729 60 - 1.005
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
direct
Study 3 AK direct
AK direct
CY direct
CY direct
MD direct
MD direct
RW direct
RW direct
SR direct
SR direct
-
Study 4 DR direct E 11963 10936 50 1.860*

DR direct C 11926 11540 50 0.682
St udv 5 DR seed E 12236 12780 50 -0.899

DR seed C 12600 12176 50 0.708
Study 6 DR seed E 13251 12086 50 1.900*

DR seed C 12223 12696 50 -0.785
Study 7 DR seed E 13361 12235 50 1.8 17*

DR seed C 12611 12985 50 -0.604
Study 8 DR seed E 11844 13062 50 -2.0227

DR seed C 12169 12737 50 -0.943
St ud-v9 DR seed E 26835 25018 100 2.0461-

DR seed C 25822 26031 100 -0.235
Study 10 RS direct E 2445 2197 10 0.990

RS seed E 2319 2251 10 0.276
Study 1 1 BJ seed E 33520 33676 128 -0.153

BJ direct E 30557 29539 128 1.123
Study12 BN direct E 13326 13159 64 0.297
* Significant at p < .05, one-tailed.

7 Significant at p < .05, two-tailed.
" There were 16 clockwise (and counter-clockwise) samples per run.
DR is the first author. Excepting BN, all other subjects were unselected volunteers claiming
no special abilities.
' E = experimental, C = control condition.
After completing the 60 test runs, a series of 60 control runs was per-
formed in which the lights were covered and the headphones unplugged.
The machine was located in the same place and under the same conditions
as in the experimental condition. During control runs D R engaged in other
tasks. pausing every so often to begin the next run. When each control run
had completed, the number of hits and misses was manually recorded.
In this experiment, DR recruited 10 volunteers from AT&T Bell Labora-

tories, Columbus, Ohio. Each participant performed 15 runs in the direct
mode for a total of 150 runs pooled across subjects. The experimental runs
took place in the Human Factors Laboratory at the Columbus Labs. Each
subject was instructed in the use of the machine, and each was allowed to
perform as many practice runs as he or she wished before beginning the
formal data collection. Because Study 1 showed no systematic (first-order)
bias in the control condition, no separate control condition was included in
this study.
This experiment consisted of rerunning the top five scorers from Study 2,
where top scorers were defined as those persons obtaining the top five
greatest excesses of hits over misses. This process was intended to select the
more "talented" subjects from Study 2, even though it was recognized that
those subjects could have obtained their higher scores by chance. Each
individual performed 15 direct mode runs in the Human Factors Labora-
tory, for a total of 75 pooled runs. Immediately after each subject's 15-run
session, DR ran a 15-run control session. During the control runs the face of
the test machine was covered and the headphones unplugged, as in the first
control study, so no feedback could be heard or seen.
This test was an attempt to replicate the results of the first experiment.
The experiment was performed by DR in the direct mode, in the same
relaxed, undisturbed setting as in Study 1. This time, however, 5 sessions of
1 0 runs each were performed over 5 successive days, for a total of 50 runs in
experimental and control conditions.
In this study, DR ran the REG in the seed mode. The setting was quiet
and undisturbed, and one or two sessions of 10 runs each were performed
per day until 50 test runs were completed. Immediately after completing the
50 test runs, 50 control runs were performed. The test procedure was to reset
the microprocessor, wait for a seed to be generated (this random waiting
time was usually between 1 and 5 seconds), then try to influence the REG to
produce more clockwise motion than no motion. The control procedure
was identical except that no directional intention was applied, the face of the
test machine was covered, and the headphones unplugged.
Study 6
In this study, DR tested a possible time-displaced effect. Conditions of the
test were the same as in Study 5, except that several seconds after the REG
generated the seed for a run, a task was randomly selected by stopping a
digital stopwatch and examining the hundreds-place digit. If the digit was
even, the task was to try for as much clockwise motion as possible. If the
digit was odd, the task was to try for as much "no motion" as possible. That
is, what counted as success on each run was randomly selected between
clockwise motion and no motion (recall that a feedback option allowed
CCW motion to be reset into no motion).
It is important to realize that at the moment the seed was generated, DR
did not know what would constitute success (i.e., CW motion or no mo-
tion). Thus, the momentary generation of the seed could not be "in-
fluenced" as might be the case in other studies reporting time-displaced
effects (e.g., Schmidt, 1975, 1976). The distribution of randomly assigned
tasks in the experimental and control conditions showed 27/50 even tasks
(i.e., try for CW motion tasks) in the experimental condition and 23/50 even
tasks in the control condition.
Study 7
This study was a replication of the previous study, except that the control
condition was performed by generating 50 new tasks. In the experimental
condition, 22/50 tasks were even (i.e., try for CW motion), and in the
control condition, 24/50 were even.
Study 8
A few REG experiments have provided evidence that subjects may be able
to influence REG statistics even when they are unaware of the task (e.g.,
Stanford, Zenhausern, Taylor, & Dwyer, 1975). This study investigated
whether the effect observed in the previous two studies could be achieved
when the task was unknown. The experimental procedure was similar to
that in Studies 6 and 7, except that instead of looking at the random task
before the feedback, DR looked at it after the feedback. In this way, tasks
remained hidden during the test runs.
Study 9
Because Studies 6 and 7 were successful (see Table l), but Study 8 was not
(at least, not in the directional sense), an experiment was planned as a
replication of Studies 6 and 7. Preset at 100 runs, the experimental proce-

dure was the same as in Studies 6 and 7, but the following method was used
as a control: The sum of all CW counts was taken as the control score for
hits, and the sum of all CCW counts was taken as the control for misses.
Recall that the definition of "hits" and "misses" in this study, and in Studies
6 and 7, depended on the assigned directional task for each run. These tasks
(aim for CW or CCW counts) were generated after the seed numbers were
selected, but before the feedback was presented. Thus, experimental hits and
misses consisted of combinations of CW and CCW counts, depending on
the task for each successive run.
It is important to note that the directional tasks generated from one run to
the next (by the method described in Study 6, above) were recorded man-
ually. While it is unlikely that systematic recording biases could have in-
fluenced the data given that the task was generated before the results of a run
were known, manual recordings are less certain than automatic recordings,
and thus results of Studies 6-9 should be considered as tentative only.
Study 10
Subject RS, a surgeon highly skeptical of psi phenomena, contributed 10
runs in both direct and seed modes, in the first author's presence.
Study I I
Subject BJ, a homemaker, claimed no special abilities but was interested
in participating in the experiment. She was allowed to keep the REG for one
month at home, and was instructed to perform 128 runs in both the seed
and direct modes. Upon reading out the scores on the PROM chip, no
instances of data selection or turning off the REG'S power during a run were
detected.
Study 12
Subject BN, a homemaker, claimed a variety of psychic abilities. She was
allowed to keep the REG for one month, at her home, and was instructed to
perform 64 runs in the direct mode. No attempts at data selection were
detected upon reading out the scores on the PROM chip.
Discussion
Figure 3 shows the same information as Table 1, but in the form of
cumulative deviation curves for experimental and control studies. Figure 4
shows these curves separated by direct or seed mode of operation.
Figure 3 reveals that the experimental condition produced a significant
deviation from chance (terminal Z = 2.941, p = .002) and that the control
condition remained within the chance expectation envelope (terminal Z
Experimental
chance expectation
1 I I I I I I
Samples
Fig. 3. Cumulative deviation of hits-misses from chance expectation (as defined by the assigned
directional task) for all experimental and control tests. The parabola shows the p = .05
level.
Samples
Fig. 4. Cumulative deviation of hits-misses from chance expectation, separated according to

experimental condition and mode. "E" indicates the experimental condition and "C"
the control condition. The parabola shows the p = .05 level.
= - 1.005, p = 343). Figure 4 indicates that the primary significance was
obtained in the direct mode (terminal Z = 2.754), but the seed mode also
contributed to the positive trend (terminal Z = 1.121).
In Table 1 we see that 8 of 27 experiments and 0 of 12 control tests were
significant at p < .05, one-tailed. This corresponds to p = 3.67 X
one-tailed, and p = .540, respectively.~ecausethe first author, DR, was
subject in 7 of the 12 Studies, it is instructive to examine the results when
other individuals participated as subjects. From Table 1 it can be seen that 3
of 20 experimental tests not involving DR as subject produced results with p
I.05 (p = .076), 5 of 20 tests resulted in p I -10(p = .043), 7 of 20 resulted
in p I .15 ( p = .022), and 9 of 20 resulted in p I .20 ( p = .0099). This
suggests that the overall level of significance is not only due to DR's contri-
butions.
Conclusion
Eight of 27 experiments using a random event generator constructed by
Helmut Schmidt, and independently tested by the first author, confirmed a
claimed correlation between intention and the statistical distribution of
random events. Twelve control tests were non-significant.
In isolation, the anomaly observed in this experiment would be interest-
ing, but not particularly persuasive. This is because there are, at present, no
compelling theoretical reasons to predict the existence of such an effect.
However, in spite of prevailing theory, three independent reviews of experi-
ments using REGS have agreed that the aggregate evidence for this effect is
exceptionally persuasive (Honorton, 1978; May, Humphrey, & Hubbard,
1980; Radin & Nelson, 1987; Radin & Nelson, in press). The anomaly has
resisted repeated efforts to "explain-away" the evidence as being due solely
to methodological artifact, statistical problems, or experimenter or sub-
ject fraud.
Numerous theorists have proposed mathematical, physical, and psycho-
logical models to explain how such effects might be possible (e.g., Bastin,
1977; Costa de Beauregard, 1979; Jahn & Dunne, 1986; Schmidt, 1975;
Walker, 1974). These models attempt to provide world views which encom-
pass concepts such as acausality and time-displacement. Some of these ef-
forts have been inspired by interpretations of quantum mechanics which
suggest that objects in the world may not be completely independent of
consciousness or observation (e.g., d'Espagnat, 1979; Hall, Kim, McElroy,
& Shimony, 1977; Mermin, 1985; Shimony, 1963; Squires, 1987, in press;
Trefil, 1987; Wigner, 1963). Some theorists argue that rather than being
paradoxical or contrary to theoretical expectation, some form of mental
influence on physical objects should in fact be expected. We close with the
intriguing thoughts of the physicist, Costa de Beauregard (1979, p. 186):
My thesis is that [these phenomena] are postulated by the very symmetries of the
mathematical formalism [of quantum theory] and should be predicted for reasons
completely akin to those that led Einstein to enunciate the principle of special
relativity, de Broglie to produce the concept of matter waves, and Dirac to (almost)
predict the positron.
Endnotes
' With one exception, as noted below.
No cases of attempted data selection were detected in these experiments.
The algorithm is r ( n + I) = [B X r(n)][modp], wherep = 219 - 1 and B = 243'. See Hardy

and Wright ( 1945) or Radin ( 1 985) for further details on generation of pseudorandom number
sequences.
"recognition is defined here as non-inferential prediction or perception of future events.
See the Appendix for a derivation of this formula.
'There were 16 CW and 16 CCW samples per run, thus N = total number of runs* 16.
' A hardware problem disabled the fully automatic recording mode in this study, thus the
recorded numbers of hits and misses in Study 1 are not as dependable as those in succeeding
experiments. All other studies were recorded both manually and automatically on the PROM.
No discrepancies were detected when manual and automatic recordings were compared.
Exact binomial probabilities.
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Appendix
We assume there is a fixed probability that the random process will cause
the REG to reverse the lamps' direction while any specific lamp is "moving"
in the clockwise (CW) or counter-clockwise (CCW) direction. If we call the
CW probability PHand the CCW probability PM,then the null hypothesis of
interest is P, = P,,.
Let X, and Y, be the number of lamps lit in the CW and CCW directions,
respectively, for sample i, where i = 1, . . . , N. Then P(X, = I) = pH,P(Xi
= 2) = (I - Pf,)PH,P(X, = 3) = ( 1 - PH)*PH, and in general, P(X, = x) = ( 1
- P1,)"-'P1,. This is known as a geometric distribution with parameter P,.
Similarly, Y, follows a geometric distribution with parameter PM.
N N
Let H = C X I ,and M = C Y,,where N is the total number of samples in
I= l I= l
the experiment. (In the current experiment, one "run," initiated with a
single button press, produced 16 CW and CCW samples.) Since H and M
are each sums of independent geometric random variables, they have nega-
tive binomial distributions with parameters (N, P,) and (N, PM), respec-
tively. Thus, E(H) = NIPH and Var(H) = N(1 - PH)/P$. Similar results
hold for M.
Instead of testing the null hypothesis, Ho:PH= PM, directly, we test the
equivalent but intuitively more appealing hypothesis, Ho:E(H) = E(M).
Relying on the Central Limit Theorem, we use the standardized version of
H - M as our test statistic.
When Hois true, E(H - M ) = 0 and Var(H - M ) = Var(H) + Var(M)
= 2N[(1 - p)/p2], where p = PH= PM. T O estimate Var(H - M), substitute p^
= 2N/(H + M ) for p. Thus, the test statistic, which should be compared to
the standard normal table, is:
Journal o[Scic.icwt~fic.Explorulion. Vol. 3 , No. I, pp. 8 1- 101 , 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
A Case of the Possession Type in India With

Evidence of Paranormal Knowledge
Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Virginia,

Charlottesvill~:VA 22908
Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health

and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
5epartment of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Universily of Virginia,

Charlottesville, VA 22908
Abstract-A young married woman, Sumitra, in a village of northern

India, apparently died and then revived. After a period of confusion she
stated that she was one Shiva who had been murdered in another village.
She gave enough details to permit verification of her statements, which
corresponded to facts in the life of another young married woman called
Shiva. Shiva had lived in a place about 100 km away, and she had died
violently there-either by suicide or murder-about two months before
Sumitra's apparent death and revival. Subsequently, Sumitra recognized
23 persons (in person or in photographs) known to Shiva. She also showed
in several respects new behavior that accorded with Shiva's personality and
attainments. For example, Shiva's family were Brahmins (high caste),
whereas Sumitra's were Thakurs (second caste); after the change in her
personality Sumitra showed Brahmin habits that were strange in her fam-
ily. Extensive interviews with 53 informants satisfied the investigators that
the families concerned had been, as they claimed, completely unknown to
each other before the case developed and that Sumitra had had no normal
knowledge of the people and events in Shiva's life. The authors conclude
that the subject demonstrated knowledge of another person's life obtained
paranormally.
K. S. Rawat accompanied us on one of the field trips of this investigation and participated in
some of the interpreting. Satwant Pasricha wishes to thank the National Institute of Mental
Health and Neurosciences for support. Emily Williams Cook read a draft of this paper critically
and helped us to clarify and amplify our report of some details of the case. Thanks are also due
to Susan Adams for assistance in the preparation of this paper.
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Ian Stevenson, M.D., Box
152, Health Sciences Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, U.S.A.
82 I. Stevenson, S. Pasricha, and N. McClean-Rice
The word possession designates a wide variety of conditions that psychia-

trists, psychologists, and anthropologists describe. It indicates that a person
has undergone such a marked change of behavior that other persons seem
no longer to be in contact with the ordinary personality of the affected
person.
Possession states occur widely in India (Carstairs & Kapur, 1976; Teja,
Khanna, & Subrahmanyam, 1970).' Most psychiatrists, psychologists, and
anthropologists have emphasized the similarities between cases of the pos-
session type and diagnostic entities recognized in the West, such as multiple
personality and hysteria. Accordingly, they tend to use phrases such as
"possession syndrome" and "hysterical possession." They also, in varying
degrees, offer motivational explanations of the condition that depict it as
beneficial to the affected person in improving his status and perhaps resolv-
ing internal and external conflicts. However, Claus ( 1979) cautioned against
psychological and sociological interpretations for all cases until we have
more information. Along the same line, Lewis (197 1, pp. 178-179) wrote:
"Nothing after all is easier than leaping to conclusions and projecting our
own psychological assumptions and interpretations onto exotic evidence
which may correspond only in superficial detail with apparently similar data
in our own culture."
The question arises of whether some ostensibly possessed persons show
knowledge about the life of a deceased person that they could not have
obtained normally. We think that in a small number of cases the subjects do
show such knowledge. Cases of this kind are rare, and yet sufficiently well
known in India so that the Hindi word parakayapravesh ("entering into
another body") exists for designating them. One of us (I.S.) has studied
several cases of the type with evidence of paranormal knowledge2 and has
published reports of two of them (Stevenson, 196611 974a, 1983a). Their
occurrence and that of occasional other cases of ostensible possession with
evidence of paranormal processes, such as the case of Uttara Huddar (in
which the subject spoke a language she had not learned and assumed the
personality of a deceased woman completely unknown to her family) (Ste-
venson & Pasricha, 1979; Stevenson, 1984), have encouraged us to search
for new cases of the possession type with evidence of paranormal processes.
Such evidence is not easily obtained. The ostensibly possessing personali-
ties (when not gods or godlings) are usually persons known to the subject or
about whom the subject may easily have learned normally. In cases of this
type it is difficult to obtain satisfactory evidence of the subject's having
knowledge paranormally acquired. We believe we have satisfied this crite-
rion in the case we now report. It involves two completely unrelated and
unacquainted persons. Their families lived in widely separated towns and
villages, and the informants' testimony warrants believing that they had had
Possession type case in India 83
Case Report
Summary of the Case and its Investigation
When this case developed, the subject, Sumitra Singh, was a young mar-
ried woman of about 17. She was living with her husband and their one
child in her husband's family home (according to the custom in India) in the
village of Sharifpura, in the Farrukhabad District of the State of Uttar
Pradesh, India. Early in 1985 she began to develop episodes of loss of
consciousness with eye-roll movements and clenching of the teeth. Some-
times she would speak during these trance-like states, and one day in July
she predicted that she would die three days later. When the predicted day
(July 19) came, she seemed to die. At least members of her family and other
villagers considered her dead, because she was pulseless and apneic, and her
face was drained of blood like that of a dead person. They had begun
grieving and also preparing for Sumitra's funeral, when she unexpectedly
revived.
Following a brief period of confusion Sumitra began to behave like a
different person. She did not recognize the people around her and said that
her name was Shiva and that she had been murdered by her in-laws at a
place called Dibiyapur. She rejected Sumitra's husband and child and asked
to be taken to Shiva's two children. She stated many details that were
subsequently found to correspond with the life of another young married
woman, Shiva Diwedi, who had died violently-whether from murder or
suicide is still unclear-at Dibiyapur on the night of May 18-19, 1985, that
is, two months before Sumitra's apparent death and revival. Shiva's parental
family believed that her in-laws had murdered her and then attempted to
simulate suicide by laying her body on railway tracks nearby. Her father,
Ram Siya Tripathi, filed a complaint, and this instituted a judicial inquiry.
Reports of Shiva's death and of the legal proceedings appeared in newspa-
pers published in Etawah, the district town where Ram Siya Tri-
pathi lived.
Sumitra's in-laws said that they knew nothing of a Shiva who had died at a
place called Dibiyapur. At first they thought that Sumitra had gone mad and
later that she had become possessed by a discarnate spirit; but they made no
attempt to verify what she was saying. It was about a month before Ram
Siya Tripathi learned about Sumitra's statements. This occurred, almost
accidentally, when he heard a rumor, while he was visiting Dibiyapur, that
his deceased daughter had taken possession of a girl in a distant village.
Nearly two more months elapsed before he was able to verify this informa-
tion by having someone from a village called Murra, which is close to
Sharifpura, visit Sumitra and her family.
The information gathered corresponded to facts in the life of Ram Siya's
deceased daughter, Shiva, and so on October 20, 1985 Ram Siya went
himself (accompanied by a relative) to Sharifpura, where Sumitra recog-

nized him and said she was his daughter. Sumitra also recognized in Sharif-
pura and Etawah (where she visited Ram Siya during the following days) at
least 13 members of Shiva's family and circle of friends.
In addition to Sumitra's statements about the life of Shiva and her recog-
nitions of persons Shiva had known, she showed a marked change in behav-
ior. Sumitra's family belonged to the Thakur caste and they were villagers
with almost no education; Sumitra herself had had no formal education,
although she could read and write a little. The Tripathis, on the other hand,
were Brahmins and middle-class urbanites. Ram Siya was a lecturer in a
college, and Shiva had been educated up to the level of earning a B.A.
degree. After her revival, Sumitra's behavior changed from that of a simple
village girl to that of a moderately well-educated woman of higher caste and
more urban manners, who could now read and write Hindi fluently.
The case came to our attention soon after the first exchanges of visits
between the families concerned. The Indian Express published a report of
the case on October 26, 1985. One of I.S.'s correspondents in India noticed
this and sent a copy of the report to him. At about the same time a corre-
spondent in northern India sent to S.P. a copy of a report of the case in a
Hindi newspaper, Dainik Jagran, that had appeared on October 23, 1985.
Methods of Investigation
Our principal method of investigation was interviews with informants,
particularly firsthand witnesses of the apparent death of Sumitra and the
change in her personality that followed her revival; but we spent almost as
much time interviewing the members of Shiva's family.
We were able to begin our interviews within three weeks of learning about
the case. In November 1985, S.P. conducted a series of interviews with some
of the principal informants for it. These included Sumitra and her mother-
in-law, Shiva's parents, and one of Shiva's maternal uncles.
In February and March 1986, we worked together on the case for seven
days. We interviewed again all but one of the persons S.P. had interviewed
earlier. In addition, we interviewed numerous other informants for the case,
especially in Sumitra's village of Sharifpura. We met her father in his village,
Angad ka Nagla. We had to seek out other informants in four other towns
and villages of the Farrukhabad District and the neighboring districts of
Etawah, Mainpuri, and Hardoi.
In November 1986, February 1 987, and October 1987 two of us (I.S. and
S.P.) spent another 10 days on fieldwork for the case. During these three
periods we interviewed (in Dibiyapur) Shiva's husband and father-in-law,
whom we had not met earlier. We also interviewed informants who had
connections through marriage or trade with more than one of the communi-
ties involved in the case; we intended these interviews to help us to assess the
likelihood that information about Shiva's life and death could have reached
Sumitra's family along normal lines of communication. We also, during this
later phase of the investigation, had new interviews with some previous
informants, including Sumitra and her husband and Shiva's parents.
By the end of our investigation in October 1987 we had interviewed 24
members of Sumitra's and Shiva's families, and we had interviewed all the
more important witnesses among these persons two or more times. In addi-
tion, we had interviewed another 29 persons who were able to furnish
background information, especially that mentioned above concerning com-
munications between the communities involved in the case.
During the interviews S.P. made notes, mostly in Hindi, and also acted as
principal interpreter for I.S. and N.McC-R., both of whom made notes in
English, as nearly verbatim as possible. During a few special interviews we
made tape recordings only, or in addition to making notes.
In our interviews we gave particular attention to the following aspects of
the case: the preceding illness, apparent death, and revival of Sumitra; the
possibilities for normal communication of information about Shiva's life
and death to Sumitra and her family; and the circumstances under which
Sumitra, after her revival, identified Shiva's family in person and in photo-
graphs.
In addition to our interviews we obtained copies of newspaper reports
(published in Etawah) of Shiva's death and of Ram Siya Tripathi's allega-
tions that her in-laws had murdered her. We also obtained copies of the
photographs of Shiva's family in which Sumitra had correctly identified
persons normally unknown to her before the change in her personality.
One of us (I.S.) has published elsewhere further details of the methods
followed (Stevenson, 196611974a, 1975).
Relevant Facts of Geography and Possibilities for Normal Communication

Bet ween the Families Concerned
This case occurred in the Farrukhabad and Etawah Districts of the State
of Uttar Pradesh. Etawah is a small city of about 100,000 inhabitants lo-
cated approximately 500 km southeast of Delhi. It is a district town on the
main line of the railway that joins Delhi to Kanpur (about 250 km east of
Etawah) and, ultimately, to Calcutta. Shiva's parents lived in Etawah from
the time she was three years old until the case developed.
After her marriage Shiva moved to the home of her in-laws at Dibiyapur,
which is about 55 km east of Etawah. Almost adjoining Dibiyapur is the
railway station of Phaphoond, which is on the main railway line linking
Etawah and Kanpur.
Sharifpura, the village where Sumitra was living when the case developed,
is just outside the Etawah District in the Farrukhabad District, about 65 km
86 I. Stevenson, S. Pasricha, and N. McClean-Rice ~
of Sumitra's in-laws lived in the town of Sikandarpur, which is about 30 km
farther north and west from Sharifpura, in the Farrukhabad District.
Angad ka Nagla, where Sumitra's father lived, is about 15 km east of
Sharifpura and perhaps slightly south.
Informants for Sumitra's side of the case said that they had no previous
acquaintance with Shiva's family, and members of Shiva's family similarly
said they were completely ignorant of Sumitra's family before the case
developed. Apart from the long (for India) geographical distances between
the families, they were further separated by significant differences of caste,
education, and economic position.
Strong support for the informants' denial of prior acquaintance (or
knowledge about each other) comes from the slow and roundabout manner
in which Shiva's family learned about the personality change in Sumitra.
Sumitra's father and her in-laws made no attempt to verify her statements
about Shiva. Word about them first reached the neighboring village of
Murra, which is 2 km from Sharifpura. From there it traveled to Dibiyapur
apparently conveyed by women of Murra who had married and were living
there. Ram Siya Tripathi, on a visit to Dibiyapur, heard a rumor that his
dead daughter had taken possession of a girl in a distant village called
Sharifpura. However, he had never been to Sharifpura and did not even
know where it was located. After another two weeks he learned about a man
called Ram Prakash Dube, a native of Murra who was living in Etawah, but
whom he had not previously known. He asked Ram Prakash Dube to
inquire in Murra about the truth of the account he had heard in Dibiyapur.
The monsoon rains led to further delays. When Ram Prakash Dube next
visited Murra, he looked into the story and confirmed its main outlines to
Ram Siya Tripathi, who, as we have mentioned, then went to Sharifpura
and had his first meeting with Sumitra on October 20, 1985. This was
exactly three months after Sumitra's apparent death and revival. We believe
that if the families concerned had been previously acquainted or had had
any lines of communication through mutual acquaintances, they would
have exchanged information about Sumitra's change of personality much
sooner than they did.
If Ram Siya Tripathi had not complained to the police about the un-
seemly haste with which his daughter's body had been cremated (as we shall
describe below), few persons outside those immediately concerned would
have heard about her death. However, when the police began to investigate
the matter, the newspapers of Etawah took notice and published accounts of
Shiva's death and of the judicial inquiry. Some of the newspapers carrying
these reports reached Sikandarpur, where persons who might have come in
contact with the family of Sumitra's mother-in-law read them. At least one
newspaper with a report also reached a reader of Sharifpura. The brother of
the headman of Sharifpura said that he had read about Shiva's death in a
newspaper before the change in Sumitra; but he gave the matter little atten-
tion at the time. The headman himself, a schoolteacher, said that he learned
about Shiva's death only after Sumitra's changeover. In addition, we learned
of two traders who went regularly between Sharifpura and Etawah on busi-
ness. After the case developed one of them became acquainted with Ram
Siya Tripathi, but had not known him earlier.
Members of Sumitra's family said that they had heard nothing about
Shiva's death before Sumitra's death, revival, and personality change. How-
ever, in view of the circulation of some newspapers in their area, and of
some trading between Sharifpura and Etawah, it is best to assume that they
might have learned of Shiva's death and perhaps also learned about some of
the allegations of suicide and homicide that figured in the newspaper re-
ports. (There was no radio station in the area. Some television had been
introduced at Etawah only [Sharifpura had no electricity], but it only re-
layed programs from Delhi and broadcast no local news.) The newspaper
reports included some of the names of Shiva's parental family and in-laws.
The important question remaining is, therefore, whether Sumitra, after the
change in her personality, demonstrated knowledge and behavior corre-
sponding to Shiva's life that went beyond the information available in the
newspapers reporting the death of Shiva and the related judicial inquiry.
The Life, Last Illness, Apparent Death, and Revival of Sumitra

Sumitra was born in (probably) 196S3in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where her
father, Chotte Singh, had gone for employment in one of the many textile
mills there. He was a native of Angad ka Nagla, a village of the Etawah
District. He and other members of his family belonged to the Thakur caste.
Sumitra's early life was unusual in the degree to which she lived separated
from one or both of her parents. The separations reflected her father's efforts
to break out of the life of a village cultivator and become a steady wage-
earner.
Because of her parents' movements Sumitra lived for about eight years
with an older cousin, Phool Mala, in the village of Birpur, in the neighboring
district of Mainpuri. Sumitra never attended school, but Phool Mala taught
her the elements of reading and writing. Phool Mala herself had gone to a
primary school only for a year or two, and she had mainly learned to read
and write at home. She taught Sumitra as much as she knew. She said that
Sumitra could read the Ramayana and was able to write a letter. Sumitra's
father told us (incorrectly) that she could not write at all, and her husband
said that she could write "a very little like a child in kindergarten." He
thought that she was (when he knew her) unable to write a letter, but we
learned that she had occasionally done this.
Sumitra's mother, Ganga Devi, died in 1979, when Sumitra was about 1 1.
In childhood Sumitra enjoyed good physical health. When she was about
13 (in 198 l), she was married (in the Indian style of arranged marriages) to
Jagdish Singh and moved to her husband's village of Sharifpura, which is
about 15 km from Angad ka Nagla, where her father was then living. Sumi-
tra's marriage to a considerable extent repeated the pattern of separations
that she had experienced in childhood, because her husband, like her father,
went to a city (in his case, Delhi) trying to obtain regular employment, and
he was often away from Sharifpura for months at a time. After three years of
marriage, Sumitra gave birth to a baby boy in December, 1984. A month or
two later, early in 1985, she began to suffer from periods of loss of con-
sciousness or trance in which her eyes would roll upwards and she would
clench her teeth. She seemed not to have fallen suddenly in any of these
episodes. The spells lasted varying times-from a few minutes to a whole
day. Sometimes Sumitra would say afterward that Santoshi Ma4 had pos-
sessed her. On two occasions she was seemingly possessed briefly by discar-
nate personalities. One of these communicating personalities said that she
had been a woman of Sharifpura who had drowned herself in a well; the
other (a male) said that he had been a man of another state in India. She
gave some particulars about this latter life that have not been verified and
are probably unverifiable.
During these episodes of apparent possession, Sumitra's condition suffi-
ciently troubled her family so that they consulted local healers. Of these the
most prominent was a man called Vishwa Nath. He was a distant relative of
the family, a cultivator regularly, and without experience in other cases like
Sumitra's. Nevertheless. he seemed to have a pacifying influence on her. He
himself at times went into trances when he would be possessed, as he would
say afterward, by the Hindu god Hanuman.
Vishwa Nath's intervention did not arrest Sumitra's episodes of trance;
and, as we described earlier, she predicted her death, and three days later (on
July 19, 1985) she lost consciousness and seemed to die. We questioned
several eyewitnesses of this event. Her respiration and pulse stopped and her
face became drained of blood like that of a dead person. A considerable
group of persons surrounding Sumitra were convinced that she had died,
and some began to cry. It was proposed to put her body on the ground (a
Hindu ritual performed for persons who are thought about to die or who
have died). Sumitra seemed to be dead for a period estimated by her father-
in-law and brother-in-law as about five minutes. Some other informants
thought that she had been dead for much longer than five minutes before
she revived, but we think they may have estimated the onset of death from a
time when her breathing became shallow and barely perceptible. No doctor
was in or near the village, so Sumitra's heart was not auscultated, and we
have reported the villagers' judgment that Sumitra was dead without assert-
ing ourselves that she was.
When Sumitra revived she did not recognize her surroundings including
the people of her husband's family. She said little or nothing for a day after
her revival. Then she began to say that she was Shiva and to describe details
of the life and death of Shiva. We shall summarize her statements about
Shiva's life in a later section of this report, after we describe what we could
learn about Shiva's death.
Upon hearing Sumitra's statements about Shiva's life and death, her in-
laws thought first that she had gone mad and then that she had become
possessed by a wandering discarnate personality who could be exorcised
away or might leave spontaneously as had the ones previously manifesting
in Sumitra.
In the autumn of 1986 Sumitra became confused for a few hours and
seemed to resume her ordinary personality. Then the Shiva personality
resumed control and was still dominant at the time of our last interviews in
October 1987. By this time the Shiva personality had been dominant-with
the single brief exception just noted-for more than two years.
The Life and Death of Shiva

Shiva Tripathi was born in Sevpur in the Etawah District on October 24,
1962. Her parents were members of the Brahmin caste and her father, Ram
Siya Tripathi, was a lecturer in a college. After 1965 the family lived in
Etawah, and Shiva grew up there along with five brothers and sisters. She
attended school and then college from which she graduated with a B.A. in
Home Economics.
At the age of 18 and a half she was married to a man called Chhedi Lal,
who lived in the village or small town of Dibiyapur.
Shiva gave birth to two children who became known by the nicknames of
Tinku and Rinku. (Tinku was about 18 months old and Rinku less than 6
months old when Shiva died.) Shiva was living (according to the custom of
joint households in India) in her in-laws' house. Friction developed between
Shiva and her in-laws. It is possible that Shiva's superior education and
more urban manners irritated her in-laws. They grumbled when Shiva re-
turned to Etawah in order to write final examinations for her college degree.
Shiva complained that her mother-in-law had told her to go and hang
herself. At one stage her father-in-law wrote to Shiva's father and suggested
that he take her back, but nothing came of this.
A more serious quarrel developed in the second half of May 1985. Shiva
was invited to attend the wedding of a member of her family, and her
in-laws, after at first agreeing to her absence for this function, changed their
minds and forbade her to leave the house. On the evening of May 18, 1985
Shiva's maternal uncle by marriage, Brijesh Pathak, who lived in a village
(Kainjari) about a kilometer from Dibiyapur, called on the family and
learned from Shiva about the quarrel she had had with her in-laws. Shiva
was crying and told him that her mother-in-law and one of her sisters-in-law
had beaten her. She did not seem depressed, and she did not talk of suicide.
Her uncle tried to calm the family members and advised them to ask Shiva's
father to come and arrange a more durable peace.
The next morning Brijesh Pathak and his brothers learned that Shiva had
died in an "accident." Her dead body had been found on the railway tracks,
and her in-laws said that she had thrown herself in front of a train. We
interviewed five persons who saw Shiva's body on the morning of May 19
before it was cremated. When discovered, it lay between two rails of a track
at the railway station of Phaphoond (which adjoins Dibiyapur). The body
was intact and therefore had not been run over by the wheels of a train;
several trains had passed the station during the night.
Brijesh Pathak, remembering the quarrel between Shiva and her in-laws
of the night before, asked them to delay cremation of the body until he could
go to Etawah and bring Shiva's father (which would take only four hours,
because the railway stations of Dibiyapur and Etawah are both on the main
railway line). However, Shiva's in-laws ignored his pleas, obtained permis-
sion from local authorities to cremate her body,5 and lit the fire at about
11:OO a.m. To make it burn more quickly they had poured fuel oil on
the wood.
Shiva's in-laws said that they had noticed her unexpected absence from
the house and had gone in search of her. Her body had been found on the
railway tracks at the railway station, and they concluded that she had
thrown herself in front of a train. They presented this account of Shiva's
death during judicial inquiries and also in our interviews with them.
Although it is not uncommon for young married women in India who are
harassed by their in-laws to commit suicide, several circumstances in the
death of Shiva pointed away from suicide and raised a suspicion of murder.
First, there was the history of the quarrel on the evening of May 18, when
Shiva had told her uncle that her in-laws had been beating her. Second,
rumors began to circulate in Dibiyapur about persons having seen Shiva's
in-laws carrying her during the night to the railway station at Phaphoond
(just a few hundred meters from their home). They were said to have ex-
plained that they were taking her to the hospital. Although there were people
around the railway station, it was night, and at one point the lights in the
station failed; it would then have been dark, so that a dead body might have
been placed on the tracks unobserved. (Firsthand confirmation of this re-
port would have been of critical importance, but we were unable to learn
even the name of a firsthand informant.) Third, Brijesh Pathak, who saw his
niece's body lying on the platform of the railway station before it was taken
away by her in-laws, remarked that only the head was injured; he thought it
suspicious that a body knocked down by a train was not more extensively
damaged.6 Fourth, although it is customary to have an inquest and autopsy
after any accidental death, the panchnama was signed with suspicious haste,
the expressed wishes of Shiva's uncle to delay the cremation until her father
could arrive were ignored, and the cremation proceeded with hurriedly.
Ram Siya Tripathi arrived at Dibiyapur around 2:00 in the afternoon of
May 19. By that time the cremation fire had reduced his daughter's body to
ashes. After considering all that he could learn about the circumstances of
her death, he complained to the police, and they began a belated inquiry.
Later, he filed a formal charge of murder against Shiva's in-laws. Shiva's
husband and father-in-law were arrested and then released for lack of evi-
dence. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law absconded and remained in
hiding for some months. In 1986 they returned to their home, were arrested,
and then released pending an expected trial. In October 1987 the judicial
inquiry was continuing with the usual delays of such proceedings.
On the facts available to us, we must suspend judgment about how Shiva
died. That she died violently and after a quarrel with her in-laws on the night
of May 1 8-19, 1985 is established. Her in-laws may have killed her and put
her body on the railway tracks to simulate a suicide; or she may have thrown
herself in front of a train during a trough of depression following the quarrel
with her in-laws.
Sumitra's Statements About the Life and Death of Shiva

Sumitra's statements made after her revival may be divided into three
groups. The first group consists of names of persons and places that the
newspaper accounts of Shiva's death and her father's lawsuit had published.
We think it extremely unlikely that anyone communicated even the fact of
Shiva's death, to say nothing of its details, to Sumitra or her family. How-
ever, as we have mentioned, some newspapers were circulated in the general
area of Sharifpura, and so we must assume that Sumitra's family might have
learned about Shiva's death normally. This means we cannot count as
paranormally derived any of the names Sumitra stated that had appeared in
newspaper accounts.
A second group of Sumitra's statements remains unverified. We refer to
her account of Shiva's final quarrel with her in-laws and of how her sister-
in-law had hit her on the head with a brick, after which her body was laid on
the tracks at the railway station to simulate suicide. Nothing refutes these
statements, but they remain unverified and may be wrong.
A third group of statements, those concerned with nicknames and private
affairs not published in the newspapers, includes statements that we think
contain information Sumitra could not have obtained normally. We learned
of 19 items that we felt justified in placing in this, the most important group.
These showed that Sumitra had knowledge of: a particular yellow sari that
Shiva had owned, a watch that had belonged to Shiva and the box (in the
Tripathi home) in which it was kept, the respective order of birth of Shiva's
maternal uncles (although one who was younger actually looked older than
one of the older uncles), one of Shiva's nicknames familiarly used in the
home (Shiv Shanker), the names of two educational institutions where
Shiva had studied (Sarvodya College and Sorawal Intermediate College), the
pet names of Shiva's two children (Rinku and Tinku), the names of two
friends of Shiva who happened to have the same name, and the names of
Shiva's two brothers, two of her sisters, two of her maternal uncles, a mater-
nal aunt (by marriage), and a nephew.
Sumitra 's .Recognitions of Shiva 's Family Members and Friends

Observers of recognitions in cases suggestive of reincarnation-of which
the present case may be considered a variant-frequently vitiate them by
asking leading questions or by cueing the subject with glances directed
toward the person to be recognized (Stevenson, 1975, pp. 39-40). Neverthe-
less, there remain several circumstances in which recognitions may occur
that deserve credit as showing paranormal knowledge on the part of the
subject. These are: recognitions that the subject makes spontaneously with-
out anyone's having asked him or her to identify another person; recogni-
tions that occur when the subject is confronted with a person and asked a
question like: "Do you know who this person is?" or "Tell me who I am";
and recognitions in which the subject immediately afterward adds a state-
ment about some intimate detail, perhaps a nickname, not known outside a
small circle of family and friends. We learned of 12 members of Shiva's
family and circle of friends whom Sumitra recognized under conditions that
we believe excluded cueing. We shall describe the circumstances of seven of
Sumitra's recognitions, including one in which cueing might have played a
part and six in which we think it did not.
1. Ram Siya Tripathi, Shiva's father. When he first went to Sharifpura, he

introduced himself outside the house and someone told Sumitra, who
was then inside, that "her father" (that is, Shiva's) had come to the
house. We therefore attach no significance to Sumitra's telling Ram
Siya Tripathi what his name was. However, she called him "Papa" (as
Shiva had) and wept. Also, when Ram Siya Tripathi asked her, Sumitra
immediately stated two pet names by which Shiva was sometimes called
in her family: Aruna and Shiv Shanker. The first of these names, Aruna,
had been published in a newspaper report of Shiva's death, but the
second had not.
2. Baleshwar Prasad Chaturvedi, Shiva's maternal uncle by marriage. Su-
mitra recognized him at the time he accompanied Ram Siya Tripathi to
Sharifpura. Asked who he was, Sumitra at first said he was Arvind's
father. (Arvind was one of Shiva's maternal uncles.) Asked to try again,
Sumitra then said that Baleshwar Prasad Chaturvedi was the father of
Arvind's wife. This was correct.
3. Ram Rani, Shiva's mother. This recognition occurred at the time of
Sumitra's first visit to Etawah. Ram Siya tried to mislead Sumitra by
telling her that her (Shiva's) mother was standing in a group of other
women at the Tripathi house. In fact, Ram Rani had gone inside the
house and was not in this group of women. Sumitra insisted that her
(that is, Shiva's) mother was not among the group of other women; she
then went into the house and searched for Shiva's mother whom she
found and embraced tearfully. (Attempts were also made in another
instance to mislead Sumitra deliberately, but failed.) In connection with
this recognition we should note that Ram Siya Tripathi had already
shown Sumitra a photograph of Ram Rani (see below).
4. Ram Naresh, another of Shiva's maternal uncles. This recognition oc-
curred at the time of Sumitra's first visit to Etawah. Ram Naresh pre-
sented himself to Sumitra and said: "Who am I?" Sumitra said: "You
are my mother's brother." He said: "Which one?" She replied: "Ram
Naresh of Kanpur." He had formerly lived in Kanpur, and had moved
to Etawah after Shiva's death.
5. Ram Prakash Dixit, another of Shiva's maternal uncles. He went to
Sharifpura (at the end of October, less than 10 days after Ram Siya
Tripathi had first met Sumitra). He had grown a beard, which Shiva had
never seen. When Sumitra first saw him, he was sitting in front of her
and remained silent. She recognized him as Shiva's mother's brother,
but was at first unable to give his name. He then spoke a few words, and
she immediately recognized his voice and stated his name.
6. Manish, Shiva's nephew (the son of her sister Uma). This recognition
occurred in Etawah on November 22, 1985. Sumitra was at the Tripathi
house on an upstairs terrace. One of Shiva's brothers, noticing Uma and
Manish approaching, drew Sumitra's attention to them. Sumitra looked
down and said "Manish has come." Sumitra went down from the ter-
race, hugged Uma, and called her "sister." However, this cannot count
as a flawless recognition, because Ram Siya Tripathi had already shown
Sumitra a photograph of Uma (see below).
7. Krishna Devi Dube, a friend of Shiva's youth. This recognition oc-
curred at Sikandarpur when Sumitra visited her mother-in-law's family,
in February 1986. More than eight years earlier, Krishna Devi and
Shiva had known each other when Shiva used to visit one of her mater-
nal uncles (Brijesh Pathak) in the village of Kainjari, Krishna Devi's
native place. When Krishna Devi married, she moved to Sikandarpur
and had not met Shiva for more than eight years prior to Shiva's death.
When Sumitra saw Krishna Devi, she said: "Jiji! How come you are
here? I died and have come into a Thakur's family and am helpless."
Shiva would have known normally that Krishna Devi had married and
moved to Sikandarpur; nevertheless, the Shiva personality of Sumitra
-if we may use that expression here-seemed surprised to meet
Krishna Devi in Sikandarpur. Shiva, when alive, had called Krishna
Devi "Jiji." This word means "sister," and although Shiva and Krishna
Devi were not real sisters, close female friends in India may use this
form of address with each other.
In addition to the above mentioned and other recognitions of living per-

sons, Sumitra was able to recognize 15 members of Shiva's family in photo-
graphs. When Ram Siya Tripathi first met Sumitra in Sharifpura, he showed
her eight photographs in an album that he had brought. One was of his wife
and children that was taken in 1967, that is, about 18 years earlier. Sumitra
correctly identified all six persons in the photograph: Ram Siya Tripathi, his
wife, his mother, his daughter Uma, his son Raman, and his daughter Shiva.
Of the last, Sumitra said: "This is me."
Sumitra correctly identified and named all the persons in the photograph.
(Some of these persons figured in the previous photograph and in others
shown to Sumitra.)
Another photograph showed three adult women, two of them holding
infants. Sumitra identified Shiva's mother in it and said the child on her lap
was Shiva's brother Raman. She then said that one of the other women was
a maternal aunt. She said the third woman was possibly another aunt, but
she was unsure of this, and she could not recognize the child on this
woman's lap.
Upon seeing a photograph of Shiva's young son Tinku, Sumitra began to
cry, said the photograph was of Tinku, and asked where Tinku and Rinku
then were.
When a photograph of Shiva's sister-in-law Rama Kanti was shown to
Sumitra, she said: "This is Rama Kanti who hit me with a brick." (Ram Siya
Tripathi said Sumitra's recognition of this photograph dispelled his remain-
ing doubts about whether his daughter Shiva was possessing her.)
In showing the photographs to Sumitra, Ram Siya Tripathi's attitude
appears to have been one of keen interest mixed with skepticism. He said
that as he showed Sumitra the photographs in the album, he asked her to
identify the persons in them and gave her no cues. She gave the name of
each person and usually the relationship of the person to Shiva. The villager,
La1 Man Dube, who escorted Ram Siya Tripathi and his relative Baleshwar
Prasad Chaturvedi to the house of Sumitra's in-laws in Sharifpura, wit-
nessed Sumitra's recognitions of the photographs as Ram Siya Tripathi
showed them to her. He confirmed that her recognizing statements about
them were entirely spontaneous and not cued by any remarks the visitors
made. We have described only a portion of the photographs she recognized,
and we have examined the photographs ourselves. Excluding repetitions-
of the same person appearing in more than one of the photographs-sumi-
'~ tra was asked to identify 17 persons in the photographs. She unhesitatingly
identified 12 of them, identified another three after some hesitation, and
failed to recognize two persons.
Ram Siya Tripathi showed the album of photographs to Sumitra when he
first met her on October 20, 1985. Although he did not give her cues before
she recognized each photograph, he did tell her after she had finished that
she had recognized all the people in them correctly. We think it likely also
that he communicated to her, if only nonverbally, that she was correct after
her statements about each photograph, if not about each person in a photo-
graph. Under these circumstances, Sumitra had some advantage in recog-
nizing persons she met later in Etawah whose faces she had already seen in
the photographs. (We have referred to two of these persons above, Shiva's
mother and sister.) However, Sumitra was credited with recognizing and
identifying (usually by name) eight members of the family or their circle of
Some of the newspaper accounts of the death of Shiva and of the subse-
quent judicial inquiry included photographs of Shiva, but these were taken
in 1979. The photographs of her as a child (which Sumitra recognized) and
the photographs of other members of the Tripathi family had not been
published.
In sum, Sumitra recognized 23 members of Shiva's family and acquain-
tances either in person or in photographs, some of them in both ways.
Sumitra's Failure to Recognize People and Places Familiar to Her

After her revival from apparent death Sumitra could not recognize the
people around her in Sharifpura, such as her husband and her in-laws; they
all seemed complete strangers to her. Similarly, when her father came from
Angad ka Nagla to see her, she did not recognize him. Ordinarily, she would
have greeted him and called him "Father," but instead she said of him: "I do
not know him." She was persuaded to go to Angad ka Nagla, and somewhat
reluctantly agreed to do so. She said that she had no connections there and
no interest in the place. In the village she recognized no one and seemed not
to recognize any of the places with which Sumitra would have been familiar.
Similarly, when Phool Mala, Sumitra's older cousin who had in effect
raised her from the age of five, went to see her in Sharifpura, she did not
recognize her; nor did she recognize Phool Mala's husband, Risal Singh.
Sumitra, after her revival, showed no interest in her husband and child.
She refused her husband's amatory advances for some time and did not
acknowledge that her child was hers. Instead, she asked about Shiva's two
children. Over a period of some days and weeks, she gradually came to
accept her husband and son and to respond appropriately to them. Of her
child she said (while still insisting that she was Shiva, not Sumitra): "If I look
after this child [meaning Sumitra's son] God will take care of them [mean-
ing Shiva's children]. If I neglect this child, would God not punish me?"
Under this heading we may mention also Sumitra's disorientation for
place. For example, when her mother-in-law took her out to the fields for
natural functions-the usual site for these in Indian villages-she seemed
nonplussed and asked what they were doing in the fields. When her
mother-in-law explained, she said: "We have a latrine inside the house
[meaning in Etawah and Dibiyapur]." This was correct for both the house of
Shiva's parents and that of her in-laws.
Sumitra's Changed Behavior After Reviving

We have already described Sumitra's initial failure (after her revival) to
recognize the people around her in Sharifpura, and how, after neglecting her
husband and child, she gradually resumed more or less normal relations
with them. However, she said that her son was Jagdish Singh's child from his
first marriage. Her attitude toward members of the family of her in-laws was
that they were good people and, as she was thrust among them, she would be
as gracious about the necessary adjustment as she could be. Nevertheless,
there remained important differences in her behavior compared with that
before her apparent death and revival. We shall now describe some of these
changed behaviors.
Sumitra 's Dzflerent Ident $cation of Herself and Modes of Addressing Other
Persons. Sumitra obstinately insisted that she was Shiva and sometimes
would not respond or carry out a request unless she was called Shiva. She
addressed her husband, Jagdish Singh, as "Thakur Sahib," showing respect,
but distance. Previously she had called him (with the indirection Indian
wives commonly use) "Guddi's brother." (Guddi was Jagdish's sister.) For-
merly Sumitra had called her father-in-law by a Hindi word "chacha,"
meaning an uncle; now she called him "Father." Formerly she had called
her mother-in-law by a word, "Amma," for mother; now she addressed her
by another, more respectful word for mother, "Mataji."
In the month following Sumitra's apparent death and revival, a particu-
larly poignant episode occurred. At that season (August) it is customary in
northern India for women to show their loyalty to their brothers by tying a
short length of string around a brother's wrist. This is known as the rakhi
ceremony, and Hindus attach great importance to it. When Sumitra's
brother came to Sharifpura and asked her to return with him to Angad ka
Nagla for the rakhi ceremony, she refused saying she knew no one at Angad
ka Nagla. The brother began weeping and begged her to tie the rakhi string
on him. She still refused and began to weep herself saying that she had no
brothers near her to whom she could tie the rakhi string. (We have our
account of this episode only from Sumitra and have not learned about it
from Sumitra's family.)
Dzflerent Style of Dress. Sumitra changed her style of dress. She wore her sari
in a different manner and put on sandals, which Sumitra, like most village
women, had rarely worn. Her new habits of dressing accorded with
Shiva's style.
Caste Snobbery. After her revival Sumitra showed, for a time, a definite
hauteur toward her in-laws, the Singhs. Thinking of herself as Shiva, a
Brahmin, she regarded them, Thakurs, as inferior.
On the occasion of Sumitra's first journey to Etawah with Shiva's father,
Ram Siya Tripathi, and her husband, Jagdish Singh, the group stopped at
the home of Baleshwar Prasad Chaturvedi in the village of Umrain. After
they had eaten a meal, Sumitra told Jagdish Singh: "Please wash the plates
and utensils you used. You are a Thakur and they are Brahmins. It does not
matter for me [meaning about her plates and utensils], because I am one
of them."
Sumitra's Increased Literacy. Sumitra could read a little, and she was able
to write letters and occasionally did so. However, the testimony of infor-
mants was concordant that she had never attended school and had attained
only a very limited knowledge of reading and writing. After her revival she
showed a marked improvement in her ability to read and write. We ob-
served her in both of these activities and found her able to read and write
Hindi with great facility. However, we wish to emphasize that the significant
change in Sumitra's literacy was not in her basic ability to read and write but
in her fluency in these activities and in her interest in writing. Whereas
formerly she only wrote a letter occasionally, after the change in her person-
ality she wrote letters and postcards often to Shiva's family in Etawah.
Other Unusual Behavior. Ram Siya Tripathi said that he noticed in Sumitra
some behavior that he regarded as characteristic of Shiva, such as a certain
boldness and a tendency to joke. Her husband said that Sumitra, before her
apparent death and revival, would usually get up at about 6:00 a.m.; after
her death and revival she got up much earlier, at about 4:00 a.m. Shiva had
been an early riser; her father said that she used to get up at 5:00 to 5:30 a.m.
and even earlier in the summers. One of her uncles commented to us that
Shiva used to go to bed earlier and get up earlier than other members of the
family. However, we recognize that traits such as we have mentioned in this
section are difficult to appraise, and we think they are less important than
the others we have mentioned.
Discussion
We propose to discuss what we believe are the four principal interpreta-

tions of the case: fraud; cryptomnesia (source amnesia) with secondary
personality; secondary personality having paranormal knowledge; and pos-
session of Sumitra's body by the deceased Shiva.
Fraud
We think we can exclude a hoax perpetrated by Sumitra alone. A barely
literate village woman in India could not have obtained detailed accurate
information about another woman who lived 100 km away without assis-
tance. If there was a hoaxing team, who composed it? Sumitra's husband, as
a man, could move around more easily than Sumitra, but he was not in a
position to go to places like Dibiyapur and Etawah in order to search out
unpublished details about the life of Shiva. It has been suggested that the
exorcist Vishwa Nath, who had access to Sumitra (although probably never
alone) before and after her apparent death and recovery, might have ob-
tained information about Shiva and coached Sumitra with the details of
which he had knowledge. However, this suggestion also, in our view, fails to
take account of the information Sumitra had of the private life of the Tri-
pathi family, and it fails to explain her ability to recognize 23 strange per-
sons in person or in photographs.
Shiva's in-laws at Dibiyapur had all the information included in Sumitra's
statements about Shiva's life and death, but they were already incriminated
in Shiva's death and had an interest, therefore, in Sumitra's silence. Sumi-
tra's "Shiva personality" was saying publicly that Shiva's in-laws had mur-
dered her, and the in-laws could not be suspected of promoting this view of
Shiva's death.
Shiva's parental family also had the information included in Sumitra's
statements. Ram Siya Tripathi might have collaborated in a hoax. In talking
with us, he himself mentioned this possibility. When we asked him whether
he thought Sumitra might have learned normally about Shiva he said: "No.
If she had done that how could she recognize me and members of my
family?'Then he spontaneously added: "People say I have made this case
up, but why would I do that? I am gaining nothing, and my [legal] case
[against Shiva's in-laws] will not be improved. Sumitra cannot be a witness.
I am not getting my daughter back." We think he is correct on these points.
Sumitra and her in-laws might have gained a little status from the change
in her behavior and from the social elevation of a "new" family member
from the Thakur caste to the Brahmin one. In addition, her husband, who
had been away a lot prior to the change, was staying at home more than he
had before and presumably giving her more attention. However, all these
possible gains seem to us minuscule.
Cryptomnesia
The interpretation of cryptomnesia with secondary personality suggests
that Sumitra somehow obtained information about Shiva's life normally
without being aware that she had done so and also without her family being
aware of this. She would then have used the information in the construction
of a secondary personality (Stevenson, 1983b). As mentioned, information
published in the newspapers about Shiva's death may have reached persons
in Sharifpura, even though we found no evidence that it had. The next steps
are, however, difficult to imagine. How could the published information-
and much else besides-have been passed on to Sumitra without others
being aware that this had happened? Moreover, how could information in a
verbal form have enabled Sumitra to recognize many members of Shiva's
family in person and in old photographs? Such recognitions depend on tacit
knowing that cannot be conveyed in words (Polanyi, 1966).'
Apart from the newspapers there were the traders who went between
Sharifpura and Etawah and the women of the neighboring village of Murra
who were married in Dibiyapur or nearby. The latter group particularly
drew our attention. If one or two of them had brought the news of Sumitra's
death, revival, and changed personality to Dibiyapur, could they not also
have been conduits for information from Dibiyapur about Shiva's death and
other details of her life? We spent considerable time both at Dibiyapur and
Murra in probing for ways in which this might have happened, and we
cannot see any way in which it could. Although Murra and Sharifpura are
only 2 km apart by road (and closer across the fields), there is little inter-
course between the villages except on special occasions. Because they are so
close, they are considered twin villages and each is inside the other's bound-
aries for acceptable exogamy; therefore, there are no marriages between the
two villages. At the same time, the villages are far enough apart so that the
inhabitants of one do not meet those of the other when they are at work in
their fields. One informant of Sharifpura, who lived less than 60 m from
Sumitra's house (and was distantly related to her), assured us that it would
have been "impossible" for women of Murra to have told or taught Sumitra
what she knew about Shiva's family. Again, even supposing that the women
of Murra had brought back and somehow conveyed to Sharifpura some
news of Shiva's death, such knowledge as they may have had would not have
accounted for all of Sumitra's knowledge of Shiva's private life and for her
ability to recognize so many persons known to Shiva, but whom Sumitra
had never seen before.
Secondary Personality With Paranormal Knowledge

Most secondary personalities do not demonstrate paranormal knowl-
edge;* but a few exceptions have occurred, and the case of Doris Fischer
(Prince, 19 15-1916, 1926) belongs in this small group. There is no evidence
that Sumitra had any powers of extrasensory perception before her apparent
death and revival. However, if she somehow acquired such powers she
might conceivably have obtained information paranormally about the life
and death of Shiva and then developed a secondary personality with that
information. The sudden enhancement of Sumitra's ability to read and
write makes the case parallel to that of Pearl Curran; she was a person of
extremely modest education whose secondary personality, "Patience
Worth," wrote a series of remarkable historical novels that seemed far
beyond the normal capacities of Mrs. Curran (Litvag, 1972; Prince, 1927).
However, "Patience Worth" showed little evidence of telepathy and cer-
tainly nothing like what Sumitra demonstrated, if we attribute her knowl-
edge of details of Shiva's life to that process.
Possession
The evidence that Sumitra's case provides of paranormally acquired in-
formation invites comparison between it and the cases of Lurancy Vennum
(Hodgson, 1901 ; Stevens, 1887) and Maria Talarico (Giovetti, 1985; Scam-
bio, 1939). However, these were cases in which the change of personality
was so marked that the term possession seemed applicable to them. And this
is the fourth interpretation we wish considered for the present case.
If the other interpretations we have mentioned should be set aside as
inadequately accounting for all the facts of the case, we are led to consider
that a drastic change of personality occurred. When personality becomes
100 I. Stevenson, S. Pasricha, a n d N. McClean-Rice
altered unrecognizably, taking on the attributes and the knowledge a de-
ceased personality was known to have, it may be best to speak of the change
as a type of possession or reincarnation. Although we do not dogmatically
assert that this is the correct interpretation of this case, we believe much of
the evidence makes it the most plausible one.
I Endnotes I
' Possession states occur in many other countries, one might almost say in all of them.
However, we think it unnecessary to review the unmanageably extensive literature on this
subject, all the more so since adequate reviews with further references have been published
elsewhere (Bourguignon, 1976: Lewis, 197 1 :Pattison, Kahan, & Hurd, 1986). We should like to
record our agreement with Lewis (197 I, pp. 29-30), who warned against the futility of trying to
find a single interpretation that will fit all cases of ostensible possession. The word possession
labels many conditions of various types and different origins and processes.
Although we shall refer to knowledge ostensibly obtained without the known sensory organs
asparanormal knowledgc., we do not mean thereby to beg the question of how such knowledge is
communicated. However, the important question in any specific case, including the one of this
paper, is whether such knowledge has been obtained, not how it was obtained.
The absence of adequate written records in the villages makes some of the dates and ages
that we give in this report approximate only. However, we know precisely the dates of Shiva's
death and of Sumitra's later apparent death and revival.
Santoshi Ma is a Hindu goddess regarded as the special protector of pious and faithful
women. She was little known until this century and is not even mentioned in some standard
works of reference for Hinduism, such as Walker (196811983). An immensely successful mov-
ing picture film about her in the 1970s both expressed and promoted the cult of Santoshi Ma in
regions of northern India. Villagers of Uttar Pradesh would regard apparent communications
from Santoshi Ma and seeming possession by her as unusual, but not pathological.
The legal formalities for cremation of a body in a village of India require that five notables of
the village sign a document (called a panchnama, which means "five names") authorizing
cremation. Although some of the persons forming such committees are honest and incorrupti-
ble, many of them, at least in small villages, are likely to be friendly with the family of a deceased
person and will d o the family's bidding with and without bribery. Not surprisingly, observers
give no credence to a panchnama if other evidence points to suspicious circumstances.
However, if a train strikes a living person the head alone may be damaged either by impact
with the train itself or if the body is lifted, thrown away from the train, and falls so that the head
strikes the ground first. A more suspicious circumstance to us in this case is the location of the
dead body within the rails of a single line. We find it difficult to believe that a person intending
to commit suicide could have thrown herself so neatly in front of a train as to remain, after the
train had passed, within the two rails of a track. We should have expected the train either to have
thrown the body away from the line or to have run over it and severed it in two or more parts.
It would be more accurate to say that secondary personalities are not observed or not
reported often to demonstrate paranormal knowledge. This may be partly due to the failure of
observers to examine open-mindedly the evidence that some cases, such as the present one in
our view, provide.
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Teja, J. S., Khanna, B. S., & Subrahmanyam, T. B. (1970). "Possession states" in Indian
patients. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 7 1-87.
Walker, B. (1983). Hindu world: An encyclopedia survey of Hinduism (2 vols.). New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. (First published in 1968.)
Society for Scientific Exploration
Officers
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Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, Department of Astronomy
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Department of Astronomy Department of Astronomy
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Ithaca, NY 14853 University of Virginia
Charlottesville. VA 22903
Council
John S. Derr Dean I. Radin

U.S. Geological Survey, MS 967 AI/MMI Laboratory
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Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 103-112, 1989 0892-3310189 $3.00+.00
INVITED ESSAY
New Ideas in Science
THOMAS GOLD
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Abstract-The pace of scientific work continues to accelerate, but the

question is whether the pace of discovery will continue to accelerate. If we
were driving in the wrong direction-in the direction where no new ideas
can be accepted-then even if scientific work goes on, the progress would
be stifled. This is not to suggest that we are in quite such a disastrous
position, but on the other hand, not all is well.
New ideas in science are not always right just because they are new. Nor are
the old ideas always wrong just because they are old. A critical attitude is
clearly required of every scientist. But what is required is to be equally
critical to the old ideas as to the new. Whenever the established ideas are
accepted uncritically, but conflicting new evidence is brushed aside and not
reported because it does not fit, then that particular science is in deep
trouble-and it has happened quite often in the historical past. If we look
over the history of science, there are very long periods when the uncritical
acceptance of the established ideas was a real hindrance to the pursuit of the
new. Our period is not going to be all that different in that respect, I regret
to say.
I want to discuss this danger and the various tendencies that seem to me to
create it, or augment it. I can draw on personal experiences in my 40 years of
work on various branches of science and also on many of the great contro-
versies that have occurred in that same period.
I will start very naively by a definition of what a scientist is. He is a person
who will judge a matter purely by its scientific merits. His judgment will be
unaffected by the evaluation that he makes of the judgment that others
would make. He will be unaffected by the historical evaluation of the sub-
ject. His judgment will depend only on the evidence as it stands at the
present time. The way in which this came about is irrelevant for the scien-
tific judgment; it is what we now know today that should determine his
~ judgment. His judgment is unaffected by the perception of how it will be
received by his peers and unaffected by how it will influence his standing, his
financial position, his promotion-any of these personal matters. If the
evidence appears to him to allow several different interpretations at that
time, he will carry each one of those in his mind, and as new evidence comes
along, he will submit each new item of evidence to each of the possible
104 T. Gold
interpretations, until a definitive decision can be made. That is my naive

definition of a scientist.
I may have reduced the number of those whom you think of as scientists
very considerably by that definition. In fact, I may have reduced it to a null
class. But, of course, we have to be realistic and realize that people have
certain motivations. The motivation of curiosity is an important one, and I
hope it is a very important one in most scientists' minds. But I doubt that
there are many scientists to whom the motivation of curiosity about nature
would suffice to go through a lifetime of hard struggle to uncover new truths,
if they had no other motivation that would drive them along that same path.
If there was no question about appealing to one's peers to be acknowledged,
to have a reasonably comfortable existence, and so on, if none of this came
into the picture, I doubt that many people would choose a life of science.
When the other motivations come into the act, of course the judgment
becomes cloudy, becomes different from the ideal one, from the scientific
viewpoint, and that is where the main problem lies. What are the motiva-
tions? If there are motivations that vary from individual to individual, it
would not matter all that much because it would not drive the scientific
community as much to some common, and possibly bad, judgment. But if
there are motivations that many share, then of course that is another matter;
then it may drive the whole scientific community in the field in the wrong
direction. So, we must think: What are the communal judgment-clouding
motivations? What is the effect of the sociological setting? Is our present-day
organization of scientific work favorable or unfavorable in this respect? Are
things getting worse, or are they getting better? That is the kind of thing we
would like to know.
The pace of scientific work continues to accelerate, but the question is
whether the pace of discovery will continue to accelerate. If we were driving
in the wrong direction-in the direction where no new ideas can be ac-
cepted-then even if scientific work goes on, the progress would be stifled. I
am not suggesting that we are in quite such a disastrous position, but on the
other hand, I am not going to suggest that all is well.
What are the many factors that many people might share that go against
the acceptance of scientifically valid new ideas? One obvious factor that has
always been with us is the unwillingness to learn new things. Too many
people think that what they learned in college or in the few years thereafter is
all that there is to be learned in the subject, and after that they are practi-
tioners not having to learn anymore. Of course especially in a period of
fairly rapid evolution that is very much the wrong attitude; but unfortu-
nately it is shared by many.
I can give you there an example from my own experience where, when I
was still very green and naive, just after the war, I had worked on the theory
of hearing: how the inner ear works. As I had just come from wartime radar,
I was full of signal processing methods and sophistication and receiver
New ideas in science 105
of hearing in those terms. I thought it was very appropriate because it is a
very fine scientific instrument that we were discussing, the inner ear. But I
had to address myself to an audience of otologists-the doctors and the
medical people who deal with hearing-the only ones who were doing any
kind of research in this field. The mismatch was obvious; it was completely
hopeless. There was no common language, and of course the medical pro-
fession just would not learn what it would take to understand the subject.
On the other hand, they sure made their judgments about the matter, with-
out having any basis at all.
So it just essentially forced me out of the field. The theory of hearing
which I proposed then involved an active-not a passive-receiver, one in
which positive feedback, not just passive detection is involved. We now have
very clear evidence, after these 36 years, that indeed an active receiver is at
work, but we still have not got a receptive group of physiologists who deal in
this field.' The medical profession still hasn't a clue as to why 15 kilocycles
should be coming out of somebody's ears. Thirty-six years is not yet enough
to get that learning into the profession.
A motivation which is in a way more serious and more avoidable than the
nonlearning one, a motivation that hones out new ideas, is what I brutally
call the "herd" instinct. It is an instinct which humans have. It presumably
dates back to tribal society. I am sure it has great value in sociological
behavior in one way or another, but I think on the whole the "herd instinct"
has been a disaster in science. In science what we generally want is diversity
-many different avenues need to be pursued. When people pursue the
same avenue all together, they tend to shut out other avenues, and they are
not always on the right ones.
If a large proportion of the scientific community in one field are guided by
the herd instinct, then they cannot adopt another viewpoint since they
cannot imagine that the whole herd will swing around at the same time. It is
merely the logistics of the situation. Even if everybody were willing to
change course, nobody individually will be sure that he will not be outside
the herd when he does so. Perhaps if they could do it as neatly as a flock of
starlings, they would. So this inertia-producing effect is a very serious one.
It is not just the herd instinct in the individuals that you have to worry
about, but you have to worry about how it is augmented by the way in which
science is handled. If support from peers, if moral and financial conse-
quences are at stake, then on the whole staying with the herd is the success-
' Since writing this, we do. I recently went to a conference on Mechanics of Hearing; NATO
advanced workshop, University of Keele (UK), subject: "The Active Chochlea," July 1988.
Also, there are various recent papers on the subject, including one in the Proceedings of the
Royal Institution by Dr. David Kemp: "Hearing in Focus." It is now possible to record a clear,
high-frequency noise coming out of people's ears, with a sensitive external receiver. The ears
make clear, clean-pitched noises. They run into self-oscillation,which is clearly the symptom of
an ill-controlled active receiver.
106 T. Gold
ful policy for the individual who is dependent on these, but it is not the
successful policy for the pursuit of science.
Staying with the herd to many people also has an advantage that they
would not run the risk of exposing their ignorance. If one departs from the
herd, then one will be asked, one will be charged to explain why one has
departed from the herd. One has to be able to offer the detailed justifica-
tions, and one's understanding of the subject will be criticized. If one stays
with the herd, then mostly there is no such charge. "Yes, I believe that
because doesn 't everybody else believe that?" That is enough justification. It
isn't to me, but it is to very many other people. The sheep in the interior of
the herd are well protected from the bite in the ankle by the sheep dog.
It is this tendency for herd behavior that is greatly aggravated by the
support structure of science in which we believe nowadays. I will read out
just one passage here to show that other people than myself have recognized
the herd problems: David Michland writes in the Reviews ofAstronomy:
I sometimes wonder if the much encouraged and proclaimed interaction among
western astronomers leads to a form of mental herd behavior which, if it does not
actually put a clamp upon free thinking, insidiously applies the pressure to follow the
fashion. This makes the writings of our Soviet colleagues who have partly developed
ideas in comparative isolation all the more valuable.
Yes, I have often wondered whether one should in fact pursue subjects
with a big wall between two groups that are working in the same field, so that
they absolutely cannot communicate, and see a few years later whether they
come even approximately to the same conclusion. It would then give some
perspective of how much the herd behavior may have been hurting. But we
don't have that. Even with our Soviet colleagues, unfortunately, we have too
much contact to have a display of real independence, to see where it would
have led.
This question of how the support of science-and I don't mean only the
financial support but also the journals, the judgment of referees, the invita-
tions to conferences, acknowledgements of every kind-how that interacts
with the question of herd behavior, is what I will now discuss.
It is important to recognize how strong this interaction really is. Suppose
that you have a subject in which there is no clear-cut decision to be made
between a variety of opinions and therefore no clear-cut decision to be made
in which direction you should put money or which direction you should
favor for publications, and so on. No doubt opinions would need a multidi-
mensional space to be represented, but I will at the moment just represent
them in a one-dimensional situation.
Suppose you have some curve between the extreme of this opinion and
the extreme of that opinion. You have some indefinite, statistically quite
insignificant distribution of opinions. Now in that situation, suppose that
the refereeing procedure has to decide where to put money in research,
would say, "We can't really tell, but surely we shouldn't take anybody who
is out here. Slightly more people believe in this position than in any other, so
we will select our speakers at the next conference from this position on the
opinion curve, and we will judge to whom to give research funds," because
the referees themselves will of course be included in great numbers in some
such curve. "We will select some region there to supply the funds."
And so, a year later what will have happened? You will have combed out
some of the people who were out there, and you will have put more people
into this region. Each round of decision making has the consequence of
essentially taking the initial curve and multiplying it by itself.
Now we understand the mathematical consequence of taking a shallow
curve and multiplying it by itself a large number of times. What happens? In
the mathematical limit it becomes a delta function at the value of the initial
peak. What does that mean? If you go for long enough, you will have created
the appearance of unanimity. It will look as if you have solved the problem
because all agree, and of course you have got absolutely nothing. If no new
fact has come to light and the subject has gone along for long enough-this
is what happens. And it does happen! I am presenting it in its clearest form,
and it is by no means a joke. If many years go by in a field in which no
significant new facts come to light, the field sharpens up the opinions and
gives the appearance that the problem is solved.
I know this very well in one field, which is that of petroleum derivation,
where the case has been argued since the 1880's. At the present time most
people would say the problem is completely solved, though there is abso-
lutely nothing in the factual situation that would indicate a solution. It is
also very clear there that the holding-in that has taken place has been an
absolute disaster to research. It is now virtually impossible to do any re-
search outside the widely accepted position. If a young man with no scien-
tific standing were to attempt this, however brilliant he might be, he
wouldn't have a hope.
I believe that our present way of conducting science is deeply afflicted by
this tendency. The peer review system, which we regard as the only fair way
we know of to distribute money (I don't think it is, but it is generally thought
to be) is an absolute disaster. It is a completely unstable method. It is
completely prone to this tendency; there is no getting out of it. The more
reviews you require for a proposal-now the NSF requires seven reviewers
for a proposal-the more you require, the more certain it is that you will
follow the statistical tendency dictated by this principle. If you had noise in
the situation, it would be much better. There used to be in the United States
many different agencies, and there was perhaps an odd-ball over here who
gave out some money for one agency, and a funny fellow over there for
another. This was a noisy situation, and it was not driving quite as hard
towards unanimity. But now we have it all streamlined and know exactly to
whom we have to go for a particular subject and, of course, it is an absolute
108 T. Gold
Why is it thought that the peer review system would work for science?
How about trying to make a peer review system work for other forms of
endeavor? Suppose we had a national foundation for the arts and every
painter had to apply to it to get his canvas and his brushes and his paints.
How do you suppose that would work? I can imagine some of the conse-
quences, but better than that, we can look them up in historical examples. If
you want to read such, in the book The Experts Speak, you can do that.
There is a long list of them that you can read-it makes marvelous reading.
Eduard Manet wrote to his colleague Claude Monet, of Renoir: "He has
no talent at all, that boy. Tell him to give up painting."
"Rembrandt was regarded as not comparable with an extraordinarily
gifted artist, Mr. Ripingill."
William Blake spoke of Titian and the Venetians as "such idiots are not
artists."
"Degas regarded Toulouse-Lautrec as merely a painter of a period of no
consequence." One wonders how art would have fared in a peer review
system.
Or would it be different in music? We can read what was said of Beetho-
ven's compositions by musicians of his time:
"An orgy of vulgar noises" was the verdict of Beethoven's Fifth Sym-
phony by Mr. Spore, a German violinist and composer.
On Tchaikovsky's appreciation of Brahms, "I played over the music of
that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard. It annoys me that this
jumping, inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius." But one could go on
almost endlessly with such quotations. Music would not have fared any
better.
So we see that the herd instinct is a tendency in the human makeup,
which is itself a severe handicap for science. Instead of combatting it as best
we can, we have arranged a method of nurturing science which actually
strengthens it enormously-makes it virtually impossible to depart from the
herd and continue to have support, continue to have a chance of publica-
tion, continue to have all the advantages that one requires to work in a field.
If in a subject there was initially a diversity of opinions, the review system
will assure a very short life for that condition, and soon the field will be
closed to all but those who are in the center.
Once a herd is established, by whatever historical evolution this has come
about, it obtains such finn control that it is extremely difficult to do any-
thing about it. And even if it were appreciated that that is the situation, one
just doesn't know how to interfere. Where then is the right to free speech if
every journal has to send each article out to a number of people to review,
and the bulk of the people are with the herd? Usually with just one-third of
the reviewers very negative the paper does not get published.
So there is no free speech in that sense that you cannot publish diverse
viewpoints. There is also no free speech at conferences because the same is
true there. Would all those who have a divergent opinion be able to organize
their own conference? Very rarely. We represent perhaps an example here

showing that it is possible, but it is pretty rare that one can raise funds to run
conferences. Essentially once the herd is established, it will interfere in any
one of the activities that one would need to further that science.
Would the Dean in a university be willing to promote somebody to tenure
who was outside the pack? He can't, because he has to send out letters to the
leading persons in the field-he may inquire from 20 people before he gets
permission to appoint somebody to tenure-and how can he get that when
the pack is running in another direction than this person? It is absolutely
hopeless! So you establish the situation more and more.
Once a herd has been established in a subject, it can only be broken by the
most crass confrontation with opposing evidence. There is no gentle way
that I have ever seen in the history of science where a herd once established
has been broken up.
In many subjects such clear evidence is very hard to come by. In the
complex subjects, especially I always think of the earth sciences in this
respect, there are always different ways of interpreting any one fact; so many
complicated things have taken place that any one fact can have three or four
interpretations and the crass confrontation is very rare.
So then when you have a herd, all the money that you spent on it may be
wasted, or worse than that, it may actually serve to cement further the bad
situation. So it is very likely that money is often spent in science in a way
that is absolutely detrimental to that science.
What does the refereeing procedure really look like? How does it really go
on? If, for example, an application was made in the early 60's or late 50's
suggesting that the person wanted to investigate the possibility that the
continents are moving around a little, it would have been ruled out abso-
lutely instantly without questions. That was crack-pot stuff,and long been
thought dead. Wegener, of course, was an absolute crack-pot, and every-
body knew that and you wouldn't have any chance.
Six years later you could not get a paper published that doubted continen-
tal drift. The herd had swung around-but it was still a firm and arro-
gant herd.
Shortly after the discovery of pulsars I wished to present an interpretation
of what pulsars were, at this first pulsar conference-namely that they were
rotating neutron stars. The chief organizer of this conference said to me,
"Tommy, if I allow for that crazy an interpretation, there is no limit to what
I would have to allow." I was not allowed 5 minutes of floor time, although I
in fact spoke from the floor. A few months later, this same organizer started
a paper with the sentence, "It is now generally considered that pulsars are
rotating neutron stars."
I will tell you about a recent application to the Department of Energy by a
colleague of mine and myself for some money to investigate the chemistry of
hydrocarbons at high pressures and high temperatures in the conditions in
which they might be at some depth in the earth. We had the referee's reports
110 T. Gold
because you are allowed to get them, but not signed. We got one voluntarily
from one of the referees, so we know who he was. He wrote, "This proposal
must be funded. In science every research project is a risk, but here the risk is
negligible because even if the hypothesis is not correct, this research pro-
posal will contribute strongly to fundamental science in petroleum engineer-
ing, the thermodynamics of fluids, and geochemistry. If the hypothesis is
correct, the Department of Energy will have hit the jackpot beyond its
wildest imagination." And he continued with the detailed questionnaire
with top marks in every part: the competence of the proposer, the institu-
tion, the test, the facilities, and all that. He gave it top marks on every point.
There was a second referee who also gave it top marks for all the questions
that are posed on the form. But then the last question is: "Should this
proposal be funded?" and he wrote, "No." And then there was just a single
word after that where it said, "If no, why not?" And he wrote down, "Mis-
guided." It was not funded despite the fact that most of the referees in fact
gave it very high marks, due to the "misguided," and also similar words were
used by two or three other referees. No reason given; just "don't touch it."
It wasn't the only such that I have submitted over the years now, and they
have all been turned down both at NSF and DOE. It is absolutely hopeless to
get any money in contravention of the opinions that are so firmly estab-
lished in the petroleum business now.
That brings me to another problem. If in a subject you have a large
number of people because it has economic applications, that immediately
aggravates the problem. And, of course, in petroleum related matters there
are a huge number of people involved at every step. This means firstly that a
lot of mediocrity is brought into the field and overpowers the field by sheer
numbers; and it also means that much more commitment to a particular
viewpoint has been made by many people. Do you suppose that the petro-
leum geologist who has been advising Exxon to drill for hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars for maybe 30 years, will go to his bosses at Exxon and say, "I
am sorry, Sir, but I have been wrong all those years. We have been finding
the petroleum, but if we had searched for it in another way, we would have
found 10 times as much." It is very unlikely that they will do that. In fact,
even if his methods and his understanding were completely, clearly wrong
-even if you had the crassest confrontation in this case-I don't think that
it would be acknowledged. A very small proportion of people would have
that stature that they would turn around and say, "All my life I have taught
or struggled with these problems on the wrong lines, and now I understand
the right thing." So in this case, the herd is so firmly established that one
cannot think of converting it. A quotation from Tolstoy comes to mind:
I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest com-
plexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth, $it be such as
would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in
explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they
Another area where it is particularly bad is in the planetary sciences where

NASA made great mistakes in the way in which they set up the situation.
NASA made the grave mistake not only of working with a peer review
system, but one where some of the peers (in fact very influential ones) were
the in-house people doing the same line of work. This established a commu-
nity of planetary scientists now which was completely selected by the leading
members of the herd, which was very firmly controlled, and after quite a
short time, the slightest departure from the herd was absolutely cut down.
Money was not there for anybody who had a slightly diverging viewpoint.
The conferences ignored him, and so on. It became completely impossible
to do any independent work. For all the money that has been spent, the
planetary program will one day be seen to have been extraordinarily poor.
The pictures are fine and some of the facts that have been obtained from the
planetary exploration with spacecraft-those will stand but not much else.
So yes, it is possible to make what is a bad tendency in humans in the first
place (for science at least a bad tendency) that much worse with a lack of
understanding of how the inward looking effect can be controlled or at least
how it should not be augmented by the method of nurturing of science.
You may think that what I am saying is that the support for science poses
this intrinsic problem, and that if you want to be fair you have to go for an
unstable system which doesn't work. At first it looks like that. So should you
go for something that's fair-makes people reasonably happy-but that
doesn't work? Or should you go for something that is not so obviously
regarded as fair but does work? It is a difficult decision to make, but you
know there is nothing that says that things that are fair must also be the
things that work. The world is just not so benign to us. Life is not that easy.
Is there another way of doing it? I suppose that the best that I can think of
is roughly on the lines of what my friend, Arthur Katrowitz proposed at least
for major decisions: The "science court" idea is the best one. Where a lot is
at stake, where a subject has been driven into an alley, one must set up a
science court where the different viewpoints would be heard, would be
argued by the protagonists of each one, with carefully prepared work. The
different viewpoints could be judged, not by others working in that same
field, which would merely take you back to the herd, but would be judged by
a group of very knowledgeable and very competent scientists distributed
over other fields, but with enough general competence to be able to listen
and understand the detailed arguments of the field in question. I would be
much happier to have subjects surveyed every now and again by a jury of
that kind. It has to be a scientific jury because it would have to understand
detailed scientific arguments, but they do not have to be-and should not
be-from the field in which the decision is to be made.
That is the avenue which I would advise the NSF and such organizations
to pick at this time. I would say that in every field they should set up such a
science court to hear all the different opinions on a reasonably regular basis.
112 T. Gold
is true that you could do it sufficiently often for major decisions to break, or
at least spoil somewhat, the herd system. As it is at the moment, the situa-
tion seems not to be understood at all. I have discussed the herd problem
with many people in the funding agencies, and found no understanding of
that problem at all.
I could give you many more examples from my own life of the difficulties
of getting subjects funded. At the present time I am struggling with the oil
and gas business, and after being turned down very firmly by DOE and NSF,
I finally was able to get money from the gas industry itself to do research
which is in good progress now. In this area, which is one of the worst because
no really significant facts have come to light and everything has been inter-
preted time and again in the time-honored fashion, and everyone believes
they know in detail now how oil and gas come to be where they are. And the
fact that we find that oil and gas exist on the other planetary bodies, ob-
viously not due to biology, is completely ignored. They say there was no oil
or gas here, and all that happened on the Earth was something that was
completely specific to the Earth. Of course, it is a peculiar attitude, but that
is the one that is widely accepted.
There is one more point that I should make. When in a subject a general
attitude or a viewpoint has become established, then it is very easy to obtain
funds to do work in that subject on the basis of what I call "shoehorn
science." I think you will understand what I mean by that. If you make your
proposal which says: "I will demonstrate how this fact and that fact, that
apparently are difficult to see in the accepted framework, can be figured into
that framework," they are all delighted to give you money. And by the time
that has gone on for a long time, so much work of the shoehorn kind has
been diligently done to force the facts into the pattern that is preordained,
that it then looks to many people as if it all was firmly established. What
happens is that they build a superstructure on what may be no foundation
-if I may invent a "Confucius say" sort of proverb, "Never judge strength
of foundation from size of building."
In the field of petroleun~geology that is really what has happened. The
moment you dare to look at the foundation, you are a scoundrel. I have
made people absolutely wild, shaking their fists at me, when I proposed in
my talks that there was some uncertainty about the origin of petroleum. One
fellow actually wrote a paper that got published, that there must be life on
Jupiter because hydrocarbons have been seen on Jupiter.
That is my sad story. I believe that we could do something about it, that
we could propose that this kind of a situation be understood in high
quarters-that we could try and have something in the nature of science
courts established, or at any rate some review by independent persons and
not by the herd; but as it is at the moment, I feel that we are dealing with a
large proportion of science funding very firmly in the wrong hands, and
much of it is therefore counterproductive.
Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 113-1 3 1, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica
RICHARD F. H AINES
325 Langton Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94022
and
JACQUES F. VALLEE
Eurolink Intl., 2882 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Abstract-An unusual image was photographically recorded by an official

mapping aircraft of the Costa Rican government at 08:25 am (EDT) on
September 4, 197 1 while flying at 10,000 feet altitude over a body of water
known as Lago de Cote. None of the flight crew or photographers saw the
object. Second generation negative and positive black and white transpar-
encies were obtained and analyzed by the authors. Both transparencies
were photographically enlarged and printed on various contrast papers for
purposes of making visual inspections and linear measurements. Computer
enhancement showed variations in surface brightness. The preceding
frame, taken 20 seconds earlier of the same ground region, did not show the
disc. The angular position of the sun was determined for the date, time and
location of the event and was found to be consistent with cloud shadow
positions but not with the dark regions on the disc. A shadow of the disc
could not be found. The oval image measured 4.2 mm on the negative and
was enlarged to 41 mm (9.76 X magnification). If the disc was located
10,000 feet away from the camera, its maximum dimension would be 210
meters (683 feet). The various analyses failed to identify the image. The
same body of water was the site of a visual observation of a partially
submerged object on October 25, 1986.
Background
On September 4, 1971 a mapping aircraft of the government of Costa Rica
with a crew of four recorded an unusual disc-shaped image as it was flying
over the region of Arenal. It took several years for this photograph to find its
way into the hands of a Costa Rican investigator, Mr. Ricardo Vilchez who
Editor's Note. Customarily, research articles are either accepted or rejected after review by the
editor and two referees. However, one of the motivations for founding SSE was to provide a
forum for open and scholarly discussion of anomalies which are sometimes controversial.
Therefore, in cases where research methods are sound but disagreement arises regarding inter-
pretation or conclusions, we may publish (after consultation with authors and referees) articles
followed by dissenting referees' reviews.
Acknowledgements. The authors wish to thank Joe Kirska for his expert assistance in prepar-
ing the positive and negative enlargements and Kenneth Weinstock for assistance in running
the computer enhancements.
114 R. F. Haines and J. F. Vallee
(along with his brother Eduardo) runs a civilian research group in San Jose.
In 1980 Mr. Vilchez met in person with Sergio L. V., the specialist in aerial
photography who was aboard the aircraft that day. They discussed the cir-
cumstances surrounding the flight and the photograph without reaching a
conclusion regarding the nature of the object. One of the authors saw the
photograph while attending a meeting in Costa Rica in 1985, and Mr.
Vilchez was kind enough to provide a second-generation negative to be
taken back to the United States for analysis. Later we requested and ob-
tained detailed maps of the area in question, as well as copies of the immedi-
ately preceding and following frames, respectively numbers 299 and 301.
These photographs did not show the disc that was present on frame num-
ber 300.
In spite of the lack of a first-generation negative, we felt several unusual
factors justified a detailed analysis of this photograph, if only to refine our
methodology in dealing with such evidence: (1) it was taken by a high-qual-
ity professional camera; (2) the camera was looking down, which implies a
maximum distance, hence a maximum size for the object; (3) the disc was
seen against a reasonably uniform dark background of a body of water; and
(4) the image was large, in focus and provided significant detail.
Geographic Locale
The disc was located about 3 miles North of the town of Arena1 and some
25 miles South of the border with Nicaragua. The precise site was at latitude
10.583 degrees North and longitude 84.916 degrees West in the province of
Alajuela above a small lake called "Lago de Cote" measuring approximately
1800 X 1600 meters. Lake level is about 640 m above sea level and the
surrounding countryside consists of rolling and sharp hills rising several 100
meters above the valley floors. The region is densely wooded, with some
broad grassy patches. A dirt road which is only passable in summer runs
along the southern edge of the lake. It connects the small town of Cabanga to
the northeast with Aguacate to the southwest. When the photograph is
carefully examined, a few houses or other structures can be seen along this
road, as well as animals in the fields.
The location of the disc was about 800 meters due North of the boundary
between the province of Alajuela and the province of Guanacaste.
Figure 1 is a black-and-white contact positive print of most of the aerial
negative.
Figure 2 is a copy of the 1:50,000 chart in the region of Lago de Cote
above which the disc was located.
Figure 3 is a copy of a geological chart with an arrow pointing to the Lago
de Cote. A heavy long dashed line labelled "Fila Vieja Dormida" is seen
passing almost directly through the location where the disc was recorded.
This line represents a geological fault. The legend on the chart indicates that
Fig. I . A black-and-white contact positive print of most of the aerial negative.
Fig. 2. Detail from the 1:50,000 chart in the region of Lago de Cote above which the disc was located.
Photo analysis of an aerial disc
I
Lago d e Cote
Fig. 3. Detail from the geological chart with an arrow pointing to the Lago de Cote.
Parameters of the Photograph
According to Mr. Vilchez the camera used was an R-M-K 15/23. The lens
would have featured a fixed focus and a 6-inch focal length. The shutter
speed was 11500 second atj5.6. The intervallometer was set at 20 seconds
between successive exposures.
The film used was black-and-white emulsion with an ASA speed of 80.
This fine grain film produces a high resolution negative given a stable film
plane and camera and sufficiently fast shutter speed.
The negative was printed on Kodak Safety aerial film, type 3665. The
image measured 23 cm X 23 cm (529 square centimeters) while the film
base measured 25.3 cm X 23.8 cm. Comparing the image area with the
reduced scale topographical chart indicated that the negative included a
region of the earth measuring approximately 11.5 km on a side.
The following information was recorded on one side of the film:
Frame counter: 909

Altimeter: 10,000 feet
Bubble level: Approx. level
C = 152.44
Nr 21 186
Clock: 08:25 am local time
Notations: ARENAL
10,000 feet
4-9-7 1 (September 4, 197 1)
R.L.B.
Handwritten between the frame counter and the above information is the
notation: 300 L- 11 M- 1 3.
On board the aircraft were four men, namely: Sergio L. V., specialist in
aerial photography, as well as Omar A. (pilot), Juan B. C., geographer, and
Francisco R. R., topographer. No member of the crew observed anything
unusual during the flight.
The Disc Image: Analysis Results
Figure 4 is a photographic positive black-and-white enlargement of inter-

mediate contrast of the disc, showing (a) a dark edge across the top and
upper-right corner, which is the edge of the frame and fiduciary mark in-
cluded for measurement purposes, (b) the shoreline, also for measurement
purposes, and (c) the ellipsoidal disc. This figure is oriented with the true
North facing up.
A number of features are worthy of note on Figure 4.
First, the disc image appears to possess lightldark shading that is typical of
a three-dimensional object which is illuminated by sunlight. At this time
and location, the sun's azimuth was 85.4 degrees (clockwise from true
North) and altitude was 16.7 degrees which explains the lateral displace-
ment of the cloud shadows from the cloud locations.
Second, the generally triangular dark region on the right-hand side of the
disc cannot be a solar shadow cast by the (assumed) opaque disc from the
right-hand side. If the disc is an opaque, flat conical section of revolution
(the dark spot being the tip of the cone) and if the right side is tipped
upward, then the entire surface of the disc should be dark. It is more likely
that the light and dark regions are surface markings.
Figure 5 shows measured and calculated parameters for this image. The
longitudinal axis of the disc was 7 degrees CW from true North. The total
included angle of the dark triangular region was about 110 degrees arc with
the most northerly edge of this shadow 38 degrees from true North. The
Fig 4 A photograghlc positihe black-and-whlte enlargement of ~nterniedlatecontrast of the dlsc.
True
North
Fig. 5. An illustration of the measured and calculated parameters of the image.
approximate centerline of the triangular shadow region was 93 degrees CW

from true North.
Third, the finite thickness of the disc is suggested by the curved thin dark
line parallel to the right-hand side of the disc (facing East). Two straight, thin
dark lines (a, b) are also visible spanning the top of the disc diagonally and
pointed toward the West. Each line is generally parallel with an edge of the
triangular darker shadow area.
Fourth, while the right-hand edge of the disc image is in very sharp focus,
the left-hand edge is diffuse and appears to be an irregular boundary which
Photo analysis of an aerial disc 121
almost transits the light of the background in a transparent manner. It is of

interest to note that the general orientation of this left-hand boundary of the
image runs North and South rather than being parallel with the visible
longitudinal axis of the disc. This irregular edge is shown more clearly in
following computer enhancement photographs.
The top (North facing) edge of the disc is in extremely sharp focus with
not even the grain structure of the film being apparent. Whereas the entire
top "surface" of the disc shows a mottled graininess which could be repre-
sentative of a diffusely reflecting surface.
If the disc image was of a real object travelling at a high rate of speed
relative to the film plane, then one would expect a blurred image on both the
leading and the trailing edge. This did not occur here.
Fifth, the entire image is in sharp focus suggesting that (a) the shutter
speed was fast, (b) the disc was not moving relative to the earth background,
or both. It is known that the exposure lasted 11500 second which would
"stop" a slowly moving object but not necessarily a fast-moving one.
Of equal interest is the calculated maximum dimension of the disc if it
was located at the earth's surface, 10,000 feet away from the camera. The 4.2
mm length of the image is equivalent to an object 210 m in length or 683
feet. The object cannot be farther away than this.
The apparent shadow structure on the disc deserves further comment.
Using the location on the ground where defined clouds produce shadows,
straight (sun) lines were drawn, all of which should point back toward the
sun. Interestingly, these lines are not parallel but converge to a common
point near the bottom left corner of the photograph. This suggests that the
camera's optical axis was not pointed gravitationally down to the earth but
at an oblique angle.
Figure 6 is a photographic enlargement of the negative contrast in which
the film's grain structure is apparent. In this regard, there is no distortion of
the grain anywhere around the disc's image which suggests that it was not
the result of a double exposure. Nor is there any obvious indication of
heat-produced atmospheric distortion around the object. There are no visi-
ble lines to or from the disc. The magnification is identical to that of Figure
4. It is noted that the finite thickness of the disc is apparent, as is the edge
sharpness on its right and diffuseness on the left.
Ground Shadows
All available photographic evidence was studied for the existence of a
shadow of the disc. Since the lighting geometry is known, the existence of a
shadow would make it possible to calculate the linear size of the disc. The
sun-line extending from the disc's location was traced on the negative,
positive prints, and digital enhancements and any evidence for an approxi-
Fig. 6. A pho ographrc enlargement of the negat~vecontrast In which the film's grain structure is apparent
may be pointed out that the atmosphere was relatively clear (between the
clouds) so that the 32' arc solar collir~~ation
angle should produce a shar~ly
defined shadow on the ground. O f course, the greater the altitude of the disc
above the ground the more diKrse would be the shadow edge due to lighl
seatter/difision effects. It should also be emphasized that if the disc was
Located at the eaflh9s surface one worxld not expect to find a significant
shadow.
Digital Enhancement
This negative was also subjected to digtal enhancement. A regon mea-
suring I3 X 13 mm centered on the disc was digitized using an aperture of
approximately I micrometer diameter and 16 bit resolution. A number of
color assignments to the density distribution were made to elnpkasize difl
ferent katures, Unforlunrztely, the following 4 figures are pr?nted in black
and white and do not show all of this rich detail.
Figure 7 is a high rwerse contrast image to illustrate two features. First,
the density gradient on the left-hand side of the disc which is not visible on
the photographic prints (Figures 4 and 6). The same density was found on
the left and rig& sides of the disc. The left side of the disc is not a circular
extension of the rest of the disc but is flattened to some unknown extent.
Secsnd, the brightness of the lake behind the disc varies regularly fiom the
top of the flotograph to the bottom which is consistent with its reflection of
collimated sunlight over the range of angles involved.
Fig. 7.A high reverse contrast image ( j - 4, 1 - ft sec.1.

124 R. F. Haincs and J. F. Vallee
Fig. 8.The or~ginaldensttles of 100 lo 125 were mapped or expanded to I to 256 level5 of grey
( f = 4, t = A sec.).
In Figure 8 the original densities of 100 to 125 were mapped or expanded

to I to 256 levels of grey tc9 demonstrate extremely subtle optical density
changes, mainly in the area of the disc's dark regions and edge.
In Figure 9 the original densities of 175 to 200 were mapped to I to 256
levels of grey. The dark and Light regions on top of the clisc become more
evident here as does the apparent third dimension of'the object.
In Figure 10 a wider varrety of colors were used to better emphasize the
disc9ssurface density differences as well as the lake's luminance distribution.
Located above the disc is a generally oval shaped region of higher density
(darker). However, it cannot be the shadow ofthe disc on the water" surface
because it is in the wrong position relative to the sun.
Subsequent Ground Sightings

On October 25, L 986 at about 9:00 am, by clear weather, two men saw an
object at the surface of the Lago de Cote. They are Joaquin IJ.A,, 40 years
old, a farm manager, and Ronald-Alberto L.A., a 23-year-old farmer, Their
sketch of what they saw is presented as Figure I 1 .
Interviewed at the site 2 weeks after the observation by Ricardo and
Photo analysis of an aerial disc
Flg. 9. ?'he or~grnaldensities of 175 to 200 were mapped to 1 to 256 levels of grey ( f = 4, t =
sec.).
Carlos Vilchez, they gave a detailed description of the events: First they saw,
about 1,800 feet away, a row of thr-ee or four post-like cylinders rising to
about 3 feet above the surface of the lake, which was quiet and Rat as a
mirror. These cylinders appeared to be attached to a structure that remained
suherged, Later they again saw a series of objects sticking out about 3 feel
above the water and 3 feet apafi, By then they bad driven their tractor much
closer to the lake, and they could clearly observe the cylinders which were of
a dark hue, either grey or cofF'ee-colored.
After 5 or 1 v minutes these objeccs ciisappeaxcd, the r ; ~ ~ ~ c r gpol
e dt t r l r ~ a
again tilting together as if they were attached to a single submerged struc-
ture, and the whole object disappeared back into the lake with significant
turmoil and waves.
It should be nc3ted tt~atsuch observations of submerged objects, although
rare, are not unknown in the UFO literature. For example, on September
27, 1978 at 6:40 pm two Italian fishermen in Falcone (Piombino) saw a
luminous, bell-shaped object come out of the sea with a metallic sound and
fly to within 150 feet of their location, as reported in the February 1979
edition of lbTclliziarr'oUFO.
-
Flg. 10. Frnphasls on the citsc's siirface density drlkrences as well as the lake's lum~nance
dlsrrrbut~on( f - 2.8, t sec ).
Discussion
A number of questions are raised by this analysis. In particular, we have

not been able to provide an inteqretation for the fdct that the disc's image
has a sharply defined edge on the sun's (right) side and a fuzzy edge on the
opposite side, The possible significance of the proximity of a geologic fdult
line is unknown. There is no indication that the image is the product of a
double exposure or a deliberate fabrication.
Computer enhancemexst (cf. Figures 7 and 10) emphasizes extremely
small variations in background brightness. Several Ihon~ontallines are most
likely printlng adihets rather than real, environmental-related effects. An-
other feature of interest has to do with the edge of the dark triangular region
on the disc's right-hand side. Figures 7 t h r o ~ ~ g10
h all show that the top edge
of this dark region is more convex tt~anis its lower edge, as would be
expected if the disc presented a generally conical surface of revolution.
In summary, our analyses have suggested that an unidentified, opaque,
aerial object was captured on film at a rnaxlrnurn distance of 10,000 f'eet.
There are no visible means of lift or propulsion and no surhee markings
Fig. I I . Sketch by the witnesses.
other than darker regions that appear to be nonrandom. This case must
remain "open" until further information becomes available.
Referee's Review of "Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica,"

by Haines and Vallee, prepared by Marilyn E. Bruner,
Sr. Staff Scientist, Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory
I have examined the photograph exhibited in the paper submitted by
Haines and Vallee and read their discussion with considerable interest.
While I agree that the image seen in Figure 1 is very suggestive, my impres-
sion is that it probably does not represent a physical object. This impression
is based primarily on a visual inspection of the negative (Figure 6) under
levels of magnification ranging from 3 X to 12 X. The following observa-
tions were noted:
The grain patterns in the northern edge of the oval image appear to be
of a different character than those in the remaining parts of the field.
Grains are smaller and more closely packed.
The photographic density is quite high, appearing to be nearly satu-
rated at the northern boundary.
The northern edge of the image is abnormally sharp; much sharper, for
example, than any physical feature on the coastline.
There is no evidence of light diffusion or halation that would normally
be found adjacent to an image formed by a bright light source.
The light areas on the negative (i.e., the "portholes" on the positive
image) appear to have the same photographic density as the surround-
ing water.
The most troubling point is probably the very high density and unusual
sharpness of the northern edge of the image. It appears to be a step function.
The only other features of comparable sharpness are obvious scratches and
other artifacts on the negative. If the high density were due to a bright
source, at least some level of flaring, some evidence of lens aberrations, and
some diffusion in the emulsion should have been seen. This is certainly the
case for the trees, shrubs, and rocks seen along the coastline. I suspect that a
quantitative analysis of the image would show that the steepness of the step
function exceeds the resolving power of the len's, a point that could easily
be tested. The strong variations in sharpness with position around the image
boundary are also quite difficult to explain in terms of a photograph of a
physical object.
On the basis of these observations and on the authors' discussion of the
inconsistent shadow patterns, it is my opinion that the oval image is more
likely to be an artifact such as a pressure mark than a photographic image of
a physical object. Such a mark could have been caused by a foreign particle
trapped between two layers of the film on the supply spool. The gradations
in density across the image (the "shadow patterns") could easily be due to
thickness variations in the particle; these, of course, would bear no relation
to the direction of scene illumination. Thickness variations could also ex-
plain the sharpness variations around the perimeter of the image. The dou-
bled appearance of the image on the southeast edge could result if the
particle shifted and made a second impression while it was being spooled or
being transported in the camera. I did a simple experiment with pencil and
tracing paper that suggests that the appearance is consistent with rotation of
the postulated particle about a point on the northern boundary of the image.
Obviously this part of the discussion is based largely on conjecture, since
the original film was not available for inspection. The particle hypothesis
could, in principle, be tested by examining the original negative under
strong, glancing incidence illumination. If the image is a pressure mark, it
may be possible to find marks or scratches on the emulsion or local defor-
mations in the film base.
To summarize, there are enough inconsistencies in the appearance of the
image to raise doubts that it represents a physical object. The most serious of
these is that the image's sharpness appears in places to exceed the resolving
power of the lens. This issue can and should be evaluated quantitatively. If
the resolving power has, in fact, been exceeded, then the observation must
be rejected as representing a photograph of an aerial disc. A hypothesis has
been advanced to explain the image as a photographic artifact, proposing a
method for its formation and a suggested test of its validity.
Authors' Reply to Referee's Review
We are grateful to Marilyn Bruner for her reading of and technical obser-
vations on our paper "Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disk over Costa Rica."
She raises several points which deserve further comment. These will be
addressed in the same order as in her critique. We sympathize with her
difficulty in making judgments about our analysis solely on the basis of a
third-generation positive contrast print since its grain pattern might well
misrepresent what is found on earlier generation negatives. In her first para-
graph she suggested that she had the negative to study which she did not. We
only had a second-generation negative to work from. Fortunately, a careful
examination of the entire area on this negative under various levels of
magnification provides the basis for several clarifications of the points she
raises.
Bullet One. We could find no significant change in grain size or spacing
anywhere around the outside of this disk on this negative; this is what we
said in the original text with regard to Figure 6.
Bullet Two. We agree that photographic density is high along the north-
erly boundary of the negative suggesting a high level of exposure. Of course
this fact, by itself, does not point toward an optical artifact. Based upon
optical density measurements alone, the brightest part of the disk is still
lower in luminous intensity than sunlit cloud (i.e., <1 3,500 ft-L).
Bullet Three. Another point she raises is the "abnormally sharp" step
function of density on the northern edge of the image which, she states, is
"much sharper, for example, than any physical feature on the coastline."
This is true. However, careful inspection of the entire negative shows several
roofs on houses having significantly sharper edges. This fact indicates clearly
that the edge of the disk's image has not exceeded the resolution limit of the
lens. It is unfortunate that Dr. Bruner could not have inspected the negative
prior to making this observation.
The differential sharpness of the disk's image around its circumference is
more difficult to explain, at least in terms of a solid, three-dimensional
130 R.F. Haines and J. F. Vallee
that the object is partially submerged so that the water interface produced an
irregular boundary.
Bullet Four. Her comment that one would expect more light diffusion or
halation around the bright disk than is found here is interesting and raises a
number of technical questions that requires far more space than is available
to discuss. Suffice it to say that there are several other objects in the field of
view that are brighter than the disk which possess extremely sharp edges
(viz., roof tops of various buildings). In none of these regions is there signifi-
cant light spillover from the roof area onto darker, adjacent areas of
the film.
The absence of a shadow from the disk remains a puzzle to us. As stated in
our article, an obvious explanation is that the object is at the surface of the
earth where no shadow would be expected. Another possibility is that the
object is opaque, small, and much nearer the airplane so that its shadow's
reduced size and darkness would be difficult or impossible to locate on the
ground.
Bullet Five. Her reference to light areas on the negative, that is, "the
"portholes" on the positive image" is unclear. We did not use the term
"porthole" or "portholes" and do not refer to any such areas. Perhaps she is
referring to the single circular shaped region at the approximate center of the
disk which is a good deal lighter than the average luminance of the disk (on
the negative). That particular region is approximately the same density as is
the surface of the lake surrounding the disk.
Concerning the Possibility of a Trapped Foreign Particle

We have two major comments concerning this possibility. The first has to
do with the kind of an optical image that could be produced purely by a
"pressure mark" caused by a "foreign particle trapped between two layers of
the film on the supply spool," in the words of Dr. Bruner. If the particle
merely produced a dimple in the unexposed film and then came off the film
prior to exposure then one would not expect such a highly geometric pattern
of light and dark regions produced by the incoming rays from ground-re-
flected sunlight. It is also unclear how such a film deformation could occur
without leaving an oval shaped region of deformation in both the size and
spatial distribution of the film grains in that region. A careful examination
of the second generation negative shows no such grain deformation. Second,
if the particle somehow remained attached to the unexposed film as it
rapidly spooled forward within the camera, it would have had to be located
on the lens side of the film so its shadow could have differentially exposed
the film. Subsequently, as the roll of continuous film spooled on top of itself
on the take-up reel, it would have produced another (smaller) dimple there
on adjacent film. It is likely that this secondary dimple would have produced
a slight physical (and optical?) distortion either on preceding and/or follow-
ing frames in an equivalent position on the film. The linear distance be-
Photo analysis of an aerial disc 13 1
tween these successive dimples would be approximately the same and a

function of the circumference of the film reel at that point. Linear distances
between successive dimples would range from 9.42" to 14.1 " corresponding
to take-up reels with film having diameters of from 3" to 4.5", respectively. A
careful examination of frames 299 and 301 show no areas of distortion at
the same distance from the edge of the film and between 9.42" and 14.1" on
either side of the disk's image position.
In order for thickness variations of an adhered particle to account for the
present disk image detail the particle must remain stuck to the film during
its initial exposure and must possess a highly geometric pattern of light
transmission. While this is possible, it is considered highly unlikely.
If the particle somehow shifted position it would have to have occurred
during the optical exposure period of 1/500th second. Several issues arise:
(a) Why isn't there a set of double edges on the opposite side of the disk as
well? (b) Also, the disk's off-optical axis location on the film would have
produced a continuous differential density within the two boundaries on the
easterly side of the image rather than only a set of two darker lines with
lighter region between them. (c) Finally, a differential blur of these two lines
should occur at intermediate points around its circumference. There does
not appear to be any such blur.
Dr. Bruner's suggestion to examine the original negative using oblique
illumination is an excellent one. However, her suggestion that the disk is due
to an optical effect produced by an adhered foreign particle is not supported
by a careful analysis of the negative that is in our possession. We are con-
tinuing to try to obtain the original negative for further study.
Journalof Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 133-184, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
A Replication Study: Three Cases of Children in Northern

India Who Are Said to Remember a Previous Life
Anthropology Department & Department of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry,

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908
Abstract-This replication of Ian Stevenson's studies of spontaneous cases

suggestive of reincarnation presents data from 3 of the 10 cases investigated
by the author in northern India during 5 weeks in the summers of 1987 and
1988. The purpose of the study was to see if an independent investigator,
following Stevenson's methods, would reach conclusions similar to his.
Stevenson reports that the numerous cases in which a child speaks and acts
from the point of view of a verifiable but deceased person about whom the
child could not have normally known are best explained as cases suggestive
of reincarnation. With one possible exception the author was satisfied that
the cases she studied were not cases of deceit or self-deceit, although she
noted that acceptance of the concept of reincarnation played a part in the
diagnosis and unfolding of the case. While in some instances the child said
no more than could be presumed to be known by the parents, in other cases
the child's accurate and intense identification with someone unknown to
the parents indicates something paranormal has taken place.
At the invitation of Ian Stevenson, M.D., in August and the first week of
September 1987, in July 1988, and for 3 weeks in December 1988-January
1989, I investigated 10 cases of children in northern India who had been
reported to spontaneously identify themselves as being someone in fact
deceased. The purpose of the study was to ascertain if an independent
investigator using methods similar to those developed by Stevenson would
reach conclusions comparable to his, that while none of the cases offer
irrefutable proof that reincarnation has taken place, they suggest that no
normal explanation accounts for the phenomena of children who make
accurate statements about and identify themselves with someone about
whom they could not have had prior knowledge.
Stevenson has made detailed studies of cases which he calls suggestive of
reincarnation in a number of cultures, in most of which the majority of
-- ---
Acknowledgements. I would like to thank the Division of Personality Studies of the Depart-
ment of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry of the University of Virginia for covering the
expenses of my research in India, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada for its award of Postdoctoral Fellowships #456-85- 1804 and #457-86-007 1, to study
belief in and cases suggestive of reincarnation among the Beaver, Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en
Indians of British Columbia, Canada.
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Antonia Mills, Ph.D., Box 152, Health Sciences
Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908.
134 A. Mills
people believe in reincarnation: for example, India (1974, 1975a); Sri Lanka
( 1977a); Thailand and Burma ( 1983a);Lebanon and Turkey ( 1980); Brazil
( 1974); among the Indians of the Northwest Coast of North America (1966,
1974, 1975b);as well as describing characteristics of cases among the Igbo of
Nigeria (1985). However, he has also reported 79 cases among American
children (1983b, 1987). He reports that while cases vary from culture to
culture they tend to follow a similar pattern: An otherwise normal child on
occasion speaks and acts from the point of view of someone else, typically
beginning between the age of 2 and 4. Such children usually cease making
these statements by the time they are 7 or 8 years old, although behavioral
characteristicsof the reputed previous personality often persist much longer.
Many investigated cases show that there was a verifiable person meeting the
child's description. Such a person often died a violent or sudden death,
usually less than 2 years before the child's birth (Stevenson, 1986, 1987).
Because the implications of Stevenson's research are far-reaching and
controversial (cf. Stevenson, 1977b), he has sought to have his studies repli-
cated. In 1979 Pasricha and Stevenson conducted a partly independent
replication of cases of the reincarnation type, comparing cases studied by
Stevenson with those studied by Pasricha. Later (1987) they conducted a
longitudinal survey comparing cases in which the subject was born before
1936 with those in which the subject was born in 1965 or later. Both studies
indicated stability in the patterns of the cases. Since Pasricha was trained by
Stevenson, she could be expected to make studies of comparable quality to
Stevenson's, but her association could have subtly influenced her to expect
to find his data confirmed. Pasricha and Barker (1981) and Pasricha ( 1983)
have demonstrated how different investigators assessing the same case can
differ in their interpretations of its authenticity. Stevenson has therefore
sought other qualified persons to carry out further replication studies.
I first met Stevenson in 1984 when he inquired at the Anthropology
Department of the University of British Columbia if anyone would be inter-
ested in pursuing his studies among the Northwest Coast Indians. Through
extensive field work with the Beaver Indians, a Northern Athapaskan tribe
in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, I had learned that reincarnation
played an integral part in their world view (Mills, 1986). In research for.my
doctoral dissertation (Mills, 1982) I sought to see how prevalent belief in
reincarnation was among a sample of 10 different tribes from 10 different
North American culture areas. I found that the information in the literature
is quite sporadic and incomplete on the topic of reincarnation. Having met
Stevenson and learned of his studies I agreed to make a survey of cases
among the Beaver Indians in the following summer, while working on
another project, and to ask some outstanding questions from Stevenson's
studies among the Gitksan. The month with the Beaver and 5 days with the
Gitksan produced much interesting material (Mills, 1988, 1989). I applied
Reincarnation replication 135
suggestive of reincarnation among the Beaver, Wet'suwet'en and Gitksan
Indians of British Columbia, Canada.
Among these peoples, children with what are interpreted as past life mem-
ories are born to close relatives of the previous personality.' While some of
these British Columbia cases present evidence suggestive of the existence of
reincarnation, it is often difficult to eliminate the possibility that many of
the apparent past life recollections are based on information the child has
learned through normal means when the child is close to relatives with
intimate knowledge of the alleged previous personality. Information can be
internalized, reworked and even improved upon without the source of the
information remaining accessible to the individual. Helen Keller offered an
example of this kind of source amnesia or cryptomnesia in composing a
story for which she was accused of plagiarism (Keller, 1954, pp. 342-362).
India offers a better opportunity to control the variable of contact be-
tween the child and people knowledgeable about the previous personality,
because in 43% of 183 cases analyzed by Stevenson the subject and the
previous personality are from families unknown to each other (1986, p.
21 l), sometimes from villages widely separated from each other (Barker &
Pasricha, 1979; Stevenson, 1987). Therefore I was interested in accepting
Stevenson's offer to investigate cases in India so as to study the phenomena
in a culture where more opportunity exists to eliminate the factor of normal
means of obtaining knowledge of the previous personality. As of July 1988 I
accepted a joint position with the Division of Personality Studies and the
Anthropology Department at the University of Virginia, but in order to
preserve the independence of my evaluation, Stevenson has not read my
notes or any reports I have written.
1 Procedure
Stevenson gave me addresses for 9 cases about which he had learned

during his studies or through contacts in India. One of these he and Pasricha
had already investigated. The other 8 cases Stevenson has not studied nor
does he have any first-hand information about them. Although comparison
of 2 independent investigations of the same case might offer the best replica-
tion, I found that in the case previously studied by Stevenson and Pasricha
the child had been intimidated from revealing his past life memories, and I
was therefore not able to complete the study of the case.2A 10th case which
came to our attention was also studied in the summer of 1987.
In the summer of 1988 I reinvestigated 7 of the cases to ask questions I
found to be still outstanding and to catch witnesses who had eluded me
during the first trip, and I investigated an additional Hindu case and 5 cases
in which the subject or the previous personality was Moslem. These half
Moslem cases will form a separate report. In December 1988 and January
136 A. Mills
1989 I returned to ask further questions and began investigation of an

additional 3 cases. As the information on these latter 3 is still incomplete, I
have not included them in the analysis. This paper is based on the original
10 cases studied. All 10 cases were in northern India, 9 in Uttar Pradesh
province, and 1 across the border in the province of Rajasthan.
Stevenson has described the methods he has developed to investigate
cases of the reincarnation type (Stevenson, 1974, 1975a, 1987). In the sum-
mer of 1987 I attempted to follow this procedure as closely and thoroughly
as possible. In each case I endeavored to interview the child, its family
members and other witnesses to the child's speaking of what was eventually
identified as a past life, and subsequently the relatives of the previous per-
sonality. The statements of these people were checked for internal consis-
tency and accuracy. Accounts of the child's meeting with the family and
friends of the previous personality and the recognitions made were also
solicited from the child, his relatives and independently from the witnesses
among the previous personality's family. Descriptions of the previous per-
sonality's nature and likes and dislikes were obtained.
After the informants had recalled all the details that spontaneously came
to their minds, I asked further questions using the "Registration Form for
Cases of the Reincarnation Type'' and sometimes the "Computer Code-
book for Rebirth Cases" which Stevenson has developed, to ensure that I
gathered demographic and other information Stevenson has found useful
for analysis. I also took notes of relevant behavior on the part of the child.
Written records of births, deaths, postmortems, or journals were sought and
copied whenever they existed. In the summer of 1988 I asked additional
questions to ascertain more information about the place of the subject in the
parent's affections and assess the similarity or difference with Multiple Per-
sonality Disorder (cf. Coons, Bowman, & Milstein, 1988).
All 10 cases investigated follow the pattern of "solved" cases in which the
child and/or his family had been successful in tracing and meeting the
relatives of a deceased person who corresponded to the child's statements.
Ideally the investigator should arrive before the case has been solved in order
to obtain a record of statements made before contact with the family of the
previous personality and to witness the child's first meeting with and appar-
ent recognitions of the relatives of the previous personality (Stevenson &
Samararatne, 1988). Unfortunately, it is difficult to find cases at this stage
of development. The 2 unsolved cases we came across in the course of our
study could not be pursued because there was too little information to trace
the previous personality and the parents were reluctant to have the cases
studied, for reasons described in the discussion section.
In some cases the child visited the previous personality's family again in
our presence, which allowed us to observe the relationship between the child
and the various members of the previous personality's family. However,
statements made after the initial meeting generally lack the value of state-
ments made before the meeting, as there is inevitably information exchange
between the family of the deceased person and the child and his relatives,
information which in some, but not all, cases can account for the further
revelations made by the child.
Dr. N. K. Chadha, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Delhi, was
my translator and assistant. Vinod Sahni, a graduate student of Dr.
Chadha's at the Department of Psychology, accompanied us on most of the
investigations and translated my interviews with women. When Dr. Chadha
was translating, Ms. Sahni took notes, making an independent translation of
what was said. These notes were compared with those of the author working
from the translation of Dr. Chadha. The comparison revealed a high level of
consistency between the two independent translations. In January, 1989
Ms. Geetanjali Gulati, a graduate student of Dr. Chadha's, replaced Vi-
nod Sahni.
Results
In 5 of the 10, or 50% of the cases, the previous personality was initially
unknown to the child and his or her family. In the other 50% of the cases,
the child's family had either heard of the existence (or the demise) of the
previous personality or was slightly acquainted. In none of the initial 10
cases I studied was the child related to the previous personality.
In 6 of the cases the child was between the age of 4 and 6 years old at the
time of the interviews and still speaking from the point of view of being
someone else, while in 4 cases the child was between 8 and 16 and recalled
only what he or she was said to have said. Six of the subjects were male and 4
female (see Table 4 for a comparison of these features with Steven-
son's data).
For the purpose of brevity, only 3 of the 10 cases are presented below in
some detail so that the reader can evaluate the evidence these cases present.
Data from the other cases are included in the discussion section. I intend to
publish similar reports on the other cases.
Case 1: Reena Kulshreshtha of Agra

The informants for this case in Agra were Mr. and Mrs. Kripa Shanker
Kulshreshtha, their son Pankaj Kulshreshtha, Kailash Kumari (former
neighbor of Shyam Babu Yadev), Shyam Babu Yadev and his second wife
Urmila. Phoowati Devi, Shyam Babu's mother, was interviewed in Tilitila.
According to her parents, Reena Kulshreshtha was born on September
13, 1976 at their home in Agra. She is the youngest of six children: she has a
sister 20 years her senior, a sister 17 years her senior, a brother about 13
years her senior, a second brother 9 years her senior, and a sister 6 years her
senior. Her father began working some years before her birth for the Tele-
communications Department. Raised initially in Agra, where her father
owns a house, after her father was transferred to the Telecommunications
138 A. Mills
office in Lucknow in 1980, Reena spent part of her time in Lucknow, and
part of her time in Agra, as her mother maintained the house in Agra during
the time her husband was assigned to Lucknow. In 1988 Mr. Kulshreshtha
was reassigned to Agra. The Kulshreshthas are of the Kayastha subcaste of
the businessman's caste of the Hindu caste system. The name means "upper
most ancestry."
When Reena was approximately 9 months old, Reena said the word
"groom," and then got up and lay down on the bed and mimed dying by
lying down and stopping breathing (refer to Table 1 for further notes on the
7
chronology and differing estimates of Reena s age when the various events
in the case occurred). For approximately the next 8 months Reena looked
through magazines or books every morning for several hours. At first it was
not apparent to her parents what she was doing. Eventually she found a
picture which resembled her "groom" and was greatly attached to it. She
would stare at it for some time every morning.
When Reena was about 10 months old, Reena's mother reported that she
said she had died on a day like this (on which a storm was brewing) from an
injection that produced blisters all over her body. After hearing a song
"Radhay Shyam" on the radio when she was about 12 months old, Reena
said her husband was named Shyam. She used to ask her parents to find her
husband.
When Reena was about 18 months old, she tried to point out the route to
"her" home when she was on the roof of her parents' house, but when
brought down from the roof where she could no longer see the turns in the
maze of lanes in the neighborhood, she could not direct her parents there.
From earliest childhood Reena identified herself as a married woman and
a mother. She insisted on wearing, for months at a time, the necklace that is
in India a mark of being a married woman. At the age of 2 and a half Reena
said to her mother that she understood why her mother liked to lie down
with her father, which her mother interpreted as an indication that Reena
had an unusual awareness of sexual relations for a child so young. She was
observed carefully covering a doll with a cloth, and when asked by her
mother what she was doing, Reena said, "My son is feeling cold. I am
keeping him from the cold."
When Reena was less than 3 years old, she described all the steps of her
cremation. When she first began speaking about this, her parents could not
make out where she said she had been cremated. Reena said that after
cremation she was made to lie down for many days in a temple with a mat
on the floor; after questioning her, her father concluded that this was a
description of her state after death.
When Reena was about 3 years old, Shyam Babu Yadev, a fellow em-
ployee of the Telecommunications Department in Agra, of the "backward"
of lowest caste, came to her house to drop off some dried tea. Shyam Babu
had a side line of selling tea. Reena was happy to see him. After he left,
Reena told her mother, "He is my groom. Call him." Her mother did.
In fact, Shyam Babu had met Reena when she was 14 months old. As a
colleague of Reena's father, although of a lower or "backward caste," Shyam
Babu had come to the Kulshreshtha home to attend the wedding of Reena's
eldest sister. Reena's father remembers Shyam Babu remarking, "Whose
influence is upon this child?" because Reena was dark complexioned, unlike
her parents (but only somewhat darker than her eldest brother). Because
Reena used the word "groom" rather than "husband" to describe the pic-
ture, I wondered if Reena had begun the identification of herself as Shyam
Babu's wife at the time of her sister's wedding. Both her parents were ada-
mant that she had used this word, indicated how she had died, and sought a
likeness of her groom before the sister's wedding. Table 1 shows some of the
variation in the age they attributed to Reena when these events began.
Shyam Babu had indeed had a wife, one Gompti Devi (who had the same
dark complexion). She had died on February 18, 1975 after about 15 years
of marriage to Shyam Babu (19 months before Reena was born). She was
approximately 30 years old at the time of her death. According to Shyam
Babu, Gompti Devi died when given an injection to which she was allergic
which produced blisters on her body. She was cremated that same evening at
the white temple near the Taj Mahal. Mr. Kulshreshtha, Reena's father,
being a colleague of Shyam Babu Yadev, was asked to attend the funeral but
could not go. Gompti Devi was the mother of two daughters and a son. The
son was about a year old at the time of her death.
After meeting Shyam Babu when she was about 3 years old, Reena in-
sisted that Shyam Babu was her "husband," and repeatedly asked her par-
ents to "call him" to attend the special events in the family. Hearing from
Reena's parents the statements that Reena had made, and seeing that Reena
responded to him as her husband, Shyam Babu was convinced that Reena
was his wife reborn and came on about 10 such occasions. At these func-
tions Reena would act appropriately for a Hindu wife: She would serve him
food and tea and then retire. After he was gone, she would ask her parents to
call him again and ask for and give gifts in keeping with a husband-wife
relationship. For example, she asked that Shyam Babu give her material to
make a long dress. Reena insisted that her parents provide her with a sweater
and a baby bonnet for her to give to Shyam Babu.
Shortly after Reena met Shyam Babu when she was about 3 years old, she
requested that her mother accompany her to his home. The directions
Reena had given her parents to "her" house from the roof of the
Kulshreshtha home, prior to her identification of Shyam Babu as her hus-
band, correctly described the way to the house Shyam Babu owned and
occupied with Gompti Devi in Agra. The house was about a half kilometer
from the Kulshreshthas' home. Reena's parents had been ignorant of the
location of his home until Reena asked to go there after she had identified
Shyam Babu as her husband. As they approached, Reena led her mother to
the correct house.
When Reena arrived at Shyam Babu's house, he was absent but his sec-
ond wife was present. Reena learned for the first time that Shyam Babu had
remarried. Reena did not ask to go back to this house again but frequently
TABLE 1
Summary of statements and recognitions and behavior of Reena Kulshreshtha
Item Informants Verification Comments
1. She had a "groom." Mrs. Kulshreshtha, Shyam Babu Yadev, Reena's father said this occurred when Reena was 6 months old; his wife
Reena's mother Gompti Devi's corrected him, saying this was when Reena was 9 months old (07/08/
husband 87). Later (01/09/89), her mother said Reena was 1 and a half when
she said this, but thought she was 2 and a half at her sister's wedding
when she was in fact 14 months old. Shyam Babu attended this
wedding and commented on Reena. However her parents are both
sure she said this before the wedding, when she was very little.
2. She mimed her death. Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Reena lay down and held her breath when she was old enough to stand.
3. She sought and found Mrs. Kulshreshtha Mr. Kulshreshtha Reena began her search in magazines and books at 9 months and
a likeness of her Mr. Kulshreshtha, continued until she found one that satisfied her. Reena's father noted
husband. Reena's father that the picture she finally selected was not of Shyam Babu Yadev but
resembled him. (Note: there is a similarity of face and physical type >
between Reena's father and Shyam Babu Yadev.) Reena's parents
noted she made her search of her husband in the morning, at 5 or 6 a.m.
L
4. She said her Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Reena said this after hearing the radio play the song "Raday Shyam." V)
husband's name was

Shyam.
5. She said she died Mr. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev On 01/09/89 Reena's mother said Reena said this when she was 10
from an injection months old. On 07/05/88 Reena's mother said Reena said this when
and had blisters all she was 12 months old.
over her body.
6. She described the Mr. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev At first her parents could not make out the name of the place where she
steps from her death said she was cremated. Reena described the cremation when she was 3
to the cremation of years old, before she met Shyam Babu Yadev.
her body.
7. She said that after the Mr. Kulshreshtha Her father sought to learn the location of the temple by asking if there
cremation she was Mrs. Kulshreshtha were tea shops near the temple. Reena said there was no desire to take
made to stay in a tea. Her father interpreted this to refer to an after-death state. He had
temple with a mat on also interpreted her talk about sparrows to refer to an intervening life,
the floor for many but after learning the interval between Gompti Devi's death and
days. Reena's birth he thought that less likely.
8. She repeatedly said, Mrs. Kulshreshtha
"Find my husband."
9. She said she was Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Gompti Devi's son was about a year old at her death. She had also
protecting her son raised her half brother after her step-mother's death.
from the cold when
covering a doll.
10. She insisted on Mrs. Kulshreshtha She insisted on wearing such a necklace for months at a time for several
wearing the necklace years. I did not ask if Gompti Devi wore one. Such a necklace is
that is the sign of typically tied by the groom around the bride's neck at the wedding.
being a married
woman, as well as
other jewelry
typically worn by
married women.
1 1. She pointed out the Mr. Kulshreshtha Mr. Kulshreshtha Reena pointed out the route from the roof of her house, but could not
FE'?
route to her former Mrs. Kulshreshtha direct her parents when she could not see the maze of lanes when on
house. the street level. After her parents learned Shyam Babu's address they $
saw that her directions were correct (see 2 1 below). g
P,
12. She told her mother Mrs. Kulshreshtha This began at 2 and a half years old. Mrs. Kulshreshtha says she 3
that she understands continues to talk without embarrassment about sexual matters. ;it
about sexual activity. a
13. She became very Mr. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Shyam Babu confirmed that Gompti Devi was cremated in the white 0
upset when taken to Mrs. Kulshreshtha temple near the Taj Mahal. While not visible from the Taj Mahal, the
the Taj Mahal, near cremation ground is adjacent to it. One route to the Taj Mahal goes 3
where she said she right past the cremation ground.
was cremated. Reena's father thought the trip was before she identified Shyam Babu as
her husband, but Reena's mother was not sure which came first and
thought that perhaps the trip to the Taj Mahal came after the
identification. Reena has henceforth refused to go to the Taj Mahal
and is upset if she hears it mentioned in songs, or hears the cremation
ground referred to.
14. She recognized Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Reena's age at this meeting was given as 2 and a half by her mother and
Shyam Babu Yadev. between 3 and 4 by her father.
15. She predicted her
father would be
promoted.
Mr. Kulshreshtha Mr. Kulshreshtha The exact interval between the prediction (in 1979) and the promotion
(in 1980) is unclear. Reena did not predict that the promotion would
entail a move to Lucknow, as it did.
(onrinued)
-'
TABLE 1 (continued) C
P
h)
16. She has a phobia of Mrs. Kulshreshtha According to her mother, Reena has not had any injections since her
injections and has birth and first saw one occur when her mother was ill when Reena
not lost this phobia. was about 4 years old.
17. She asked that Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu says that he came about 10 times on such occasions.
Shyam Babu come to Mr. Kulshreshtha
her home for special
occasions.
18. She acted like a wife Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev She was shy, served Shyam Babu tea and food and then retired, correct
in Shyam Babu's Mr. Kulshreshtha for a Hindu wife.
presence.
19. She insisted on giving Mrs. Kulshreshtha The first baby bonnet Reena may have thought was for Gompti Devi's
Shyam Babu gifts Mr. Kulshreshtha son who was c. 1 year old at her death. See Item 23 for Reena's gift of
such as sweaters and Shyam Babu Yadev a baby bonnet to the grandchild of Kailash Kumari. ?
a baby bonnet. Pankaj Kulshreshtha,
Reena's brother z
c.
C..
20. She asked to be given Mrs. Kulshreshtha Young girls typically wear short frocks, while long dresses are worn by G?
material for a long Mr. Kulshreshtha women.
dress by Shyam Babu. Shyam Babu Yadev
2 1. She insists on going Mrs. Kulshreshtha The house was in the direction Reena had indicated when c. 18 months
to S.B.'s home, and old.
leads the way as they
approach.
22. She led her mother to Mrs. Kulshreshtha Kailash Kumari, Kailash Kumari was a surrogate mother-in-law who lived just in front of
Kailash Kumari and Shyam Babu's Gompti Devi whom Gompti Devi visited daily. Reena persistently
recognized her. neighbor asked to visit the neighbor of Gompti Devi.
23. She acted as Gompti Kailash Kumari Kailash Kumari Reena would not eat in the presence of Kailash Kumari. Neither had
Devi had in Kailash Gompti Devi, as a sign of respect as for a mother-in-law. Reena asked
Kumari's presence. her parents to give a baby bonnet to Kailash Kumari's new grandchild.
24. She said there was Mrs. Kulshreshtha Urmila Yadev, This occurred when Reena was about 3 years old. Urmila confirmed
some trouble in her Shyam Babu that she had a very difficult delivery as the cord was wrapped around
house. Yadev's second the baby's neck.
wife
25. She announced the Mrs. Kulshreshtha Urmila Yadev The birth occurred at Tilitila, 145 km from Agra. Reena's mother went
birth of a son to to Kailash Kumari to ask if this was true. Kailash Kumari asked
Shyam Babu and Shyam Babu who did not know. Sometime later he received a letter
celebrated the event. announcing the birth of a son on the date noted by Reena. Her
parents knew of the pregnancy, however. Reena asked that her
mother-in-law send laddu (a kind of sweet) so they could celebrate,
and did, taking little for herself.
26. She recognizes Phoowati Devi, Phoowati Devi estimated Reena was 3 at this meeting; while Reena's
Phoowati Devi. Shyam Babu mother said 2 and a half. Phoowati Devi saw Reena weep but she did
Yadev's mother not observe Reena when she went inside and covered her head, as
Mrs. Kulshreshtha appropriate for a daughter-in-law, nor did she hear her say, "My
bangles are with you [mother-in-law]," and, "I died in her house," as
Reena's mother did. Phoowati Devi was brought by Kailash Kumari.
Clues to Phoowati Devi's identity may well have been given.
27. She does not Urmila Yadev Urmila Yadev Reena went to S.B.'s house to see Phoowati Devi. She saw Urmila,
recognize Gompti Mrs. Kulshreshtha Mrs. Kulshreshtha S.B.'s wife, (for the second time) and saw Gompti Devi's son for the
Devi's son. first time but apparently did not recognize him.
28. She repeatedly asked Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu confirmed she had bangles, but couldn't recall the kind.
her father to go and Age at which she asked this was not ascertained.
get her four rings and
her bangles from her
house.
29. She correctly Mrs. Kulshreshtha Urmila Yadev
described the colors Kailash Kumari Shyam Babu Yadev
of Gompti Devi's
saris and sweaters.
30. She announced death Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev Three days later Shyam Babu learned his cousin whom he called "elder
of Shyam Babu's Mr. Kulshreshtha brother," had died three days before in Tilitila. Reena has never been
"elder brother." to Tilitila. Like Item 11 the statement was made while on the roof of
her house.
3 1. She named the gods Mrs. Kulshreshtha Not confirmed When in Lucknow we have checked some of the temples in the
represented at the cremation ground, and have not found pictures of the three gods
temple at the named.
cremation grounds.
32. She announces that Mrs. Kulshreshtha Shyam Babu Yadev When about 9 years old, Reena asked her mother what an operation was
her husband has had and how one was made unconscious and said her husband had had an
an operation. operation. The Kulshreshthas did not know at the time (as Shyam +
Babu was at Tilitila when he became ill), then learned through the w
P
office that he had had an operation.
144 A. Mills
asked her mother to accompany her to the home of the lady who lived across
the lane from Shyam Babu, one Kailash Kumari Yadev, who had acted as a
surrogate mother-in-law to Gompti Devi. At Kailash Kumari's home,
Reena would be shy and would not eat the food offered her in Kailash
Kumari's presence, just as Gompti Devi had not eaten in her presence, as a
sign of respect as for a mother-in-law. When Reena repeatedly asked to visit
Kailash Kumari, her mother would oblige her by taking her, but chide her
saying, "At home you are always troubling me to bring you here, but when
you are here, you are shy."
Reena continued to call Shyam Babu to her house after learning that he
had remarried. He did not bring his second wife to Reena's home, "because
of how she would feel," but he discussed the situation with his second wife,
and they agreed to give Reena material for a long dress as well as bracelets,
sweets, toys and some coins.
Gompti Devi had spent a considerable amount of her married life in the
home of her mother-in-law in the village of Tilitila, 145 km from Agra.
Gompti Devi's children were largely raised by her mother-in-law, Phoowati
Devi, after her death. After Reena had declared Shyam Babu was her hus-
band, when Phoowati Devi came to Agra she came in the company of
Kailash Kumari to see Reena. To what extent introductions were made that
identified Phoowati Devi in Reena's hearing remains unclear. Reena's re-
sponse to Phoowati Devi was interpreted as a spontaneous recognition of
her by Reena's mother: Reena wept upon seeing Phoowati Devi, went inside
and covered her head with a cloth, as Gompti Devi and all traditional
daughters-in-law do in their mother-in-law's presence. Reena said in her
mother's hearing, "I left my bangles in your house. I died in your house."
(This phrase is used generally, not just by Reena, to mean "when your
daughter-in-law," rather than that the death occurred at her home; Gompti
Devi died in the hospital in Agra.) Many other times Reena said she had a
particular kind of bangle and four rings, and asked that her father get them
for her.
After Phoowati Devi visited her, Reena went to return the visit. This was
the second time she went to Shyam Babu's house. When she arrived Gompti
Devi's son was there, but Reena did not greet him. Reena's mother felt this
was because she was uncomfortable in Urmila's presence. This is the only
time Reena has seen any of Gompti Devi's children.
Reena first went with her family to the Taj Mahal when she was about 3
years old. Her father thought this visit was before she had recognized Shyam
Babu as her husband, while her mother thought that the trip to the Taj
Mahal was perhaps after their meeting. At the Taj Mahal Reena became
very upset. She said it was near the place where she had been cremated.
Reena had a phobia of the area, and had not been willing to return to the Taj
Mahal since. Reena continued to become upset if she heard songs that
mention the Taj Mahal, or heard the cremation ground mentioned.
After Reena was in Lucknow when she was about 4 years old she saw a
hypodermic needle for the first time when her mother became ill and was
given injections. Reena was very alarmed. She continued to have a phobia of
injections, and runs away at the mention of a hypodermic needle although
she has not had an injection since her birth.
Although Reena did not visit Shyam Babu's house again, she preserved a
striking psychic connection with Shyam Babu and his family even when it
was in Tilitila. Stevenson (1975a, p. 101) reports that children reputed to
have past life memories are sometimes credited in India with extraordinary
powers, but he has found no evidence to substantiate this concept. Nonethe-
less, on three occasions described below Reena told about events relating
to Shyam Babu and his family which she had no apparent means of know-
ing. Two of these events took place in Tilitila. The only other instance in
which Reena exhibited ESP also bore some relation to her contact with
Shyam Babu.
When about 4 years old Reena said, "Mother, I don't feel like eating
because there is some problem in my house." Later the same day she said,
"Shyam Babu has been blessed with a son. Tell my mother-in-law to send
laddu [a kind of sweet] to distribute. Let us celebrate and distribute sweets."
Reena's mother went to Kailash Kumari and inquired if it was true that
Shyam Babu's wife had had a son. Kailash Kumari did not know, as Shyam
Babu's wife was in Tilitila, but asked Shyam Babu when he returned from
work. He said that he had not yet heard any news. As Kailash Kumari and
Reena's mother knew, his wife was expecting a child but was in Tilitila.
Some days later Shyam Babu received a letter announcing the birth of a son
on the day on which Reena had announced the birth. Urmila, Shyam
Babu's second wife, said that the birth had been very difficult as the cord was
wrapped around the baby's neck.
On another occasion Reena said, "My husband's elder brother died."
Three days later Shyam Babu learned, according to Reena's parents, that his
cousin, whom he called "elder brother," had died in Tilitila on the day
Reena made this statement (Shyam Babu had forgotten this incident).
Reena continued to speak from the point of view of Gompti Devi up until
she was about 7 years old, even when in Lucknow. When in Lucknow she
named three gods whose pictures she said were in the temple where she was
cremated. This statement has not been confirmed. When Reena was about
7, Shyam Babu withdrew from the family, feeling that the attachment of a
growing girl for a remarried man as her husband was not to be prolonged.
In February 1985, when Reena was 8 and a half years old (and back in
Agra), she asked her mother what an operation was and how a person was
made unconscious and said, "My husband has had an operation." Reena's
family then learned through the office that Shyam Babu had become seri-
ously ill when he was on leave at Tilitila. He had been hospitalized in
Etawah and then transferred to Agra where the operation was performed,
146 A. Mills
after which he was unconscious for 2 months. Reena announced that he had
had an operation before her father had learned this news. Reena went with
her family to visit him in the hospital.
Reena's parents reported that on one occasion she had shown extrasen-
sory perception of an event in her own family: In 1979 she predicted that her
father, Mr. Kulshreshtha, would be promoted, as he was in 1980. The
promotion affected her relationship to Shyam Babu's family as her father
was transferred to Lucknow.
Reena was 11 and 12 years old when I investigated and reinvestigated the
case and was no longer talking from the point of view of being Shyam
Babu's wife. She would not allow me to interview her, although she some-
times answered questions put to her by her parents during the course of our
interviews. She continues to show precocity in the housewifely tasks of
cooking, selectively shopping for vegetables and other items, sewing and
knitting. These skills were markedly developed from the time she was 5. Her
mother noted that she could follow directions to knit complicated patterns
in sweaters from that age, earlier than her sisters.
Her father remarked that she was never like a child, and she still is more
adult than childlike. Her parents report that she is a particularly punctual
and methodical person with an excellent memory, who studies before she
allows herself to read for pleasure and prefers adult company to that of
children. She is well liked at school where she is known as a peacemaker who
calms people down when they fight. Reena was then in the sixth grade, in
which she was doing well.
Independently we were told by Gompti Devi's husband and mother-in-
law that Gompti Devi had these qualities of being a peacemaker, and was
very fond of knitting and sewing. Gompti Devi had received an eighth grade
education.
When I returned in January 1989, I learned that Reena still related to
Shyam Babu as her past-life husband. On December 25th, he was among
400 guests invited to a dinner the Kulshreshthas held in honor of the birth of
Mr. Kulshreshtha's first grandson. Reena was eating dinner when Shyam
Babu arrived, but on seeing him, she stopped and retired, as a proper Hindu
wife should do in her husband's presence.
Evaluation of the Paranormal Features of the Case. Reena made 10 verified

statements or acts before meeting Shyam Babu and 15 afterward. Reena
correctly recognized three people and two locations related to the previous
personality. All of her statements and recognitions were correct, except her
statement about the gods at the temple where she was cremated. However,
she gave no indication of having recognized Gompti Devi's son. If Reena
had been taken to Tilitila during the period when she strongly identified
herself as Shyam Babu's wife, her apparent memory of Gompti Devi's life
might have received a more thorough check.
This case does not fulfill the criteria of having no contact between the
subject and the previous personality's family. Aside from Reena's apparent
foreknowledge of the day and difficulty of the birth of Urmila's son, the
death of Shyam Babu's cousin, and Shyam Babu's operation, the inforrna-
tion contained in the statements Reena made was either within the scope of
her parent's knowledge or potentially so. Reena's father had been told the
cause of death of Shyam Babu's wife, although Reena's mother only recalls
being told that she had died leaving small children behind, which caused
Mrs. Kulshreshtha to feel sorry for Shyam Babu's family.
Mr. Kulshreshtha and Mr. Yadev did not have a great deal of contact as
they worked in separate buildings across the road from each other. Neither
Mr. nor Mrs. Kulshreshtha had met Shyam Babu's first wife, but other
people in the Telecommunications office doubtless had and knew where
they lived.
The striking features of the case are Reena's intense identification of
herself as a married woman, her description of her death in a previous life,
her search for a likeness of her husband at an early age, her phobia of
injections and the cremation ground and her apparent foreknowledge of
events related to Shyam Babu's family. Their is no apparent motive for her
to identify herself as the wife of a lower caste colleague of her father.
1 Case 2: Ashok Kumar Shakya of Ritaur

The informants for this case in Ritaur were Ashok Kumar Shakya, his
mother and father Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Shakya, and his brother Awadesh. In
Bandha the informants were the late Kishen Behari's eldest son Laxmi
Narain Jatev, Kishen Behari's widow Savitri Jatev, Kishen Behari's brother
Bhateshwar Dayal Jatev, Kishen Behari's father's younger brother Shyam
Lal, the latter's wife Gian Shri, Kishen Behari's mother Teeja Jatev, and the
head man of Bandha, Udal Singh.
Ashok Kumar is the third and youngest son of Shyam Babu Shakya and
Chandra Wati of the village of Ritaur, District of Etawah, in Uttar Pradesh.
Ritaur has a population of approximately 5,000. According to his parents,
he was born at home on August 16, 1982. Ashok Kumar's brother Awadesh
is 1 1 years his senior and his brother Sarvan is 9 years his senior. They have
no sisters. His father, S. B. Shakya, has a high school education and taught
school before joining the army. He was unsuccessful in a competition and
returned to farm his ancestral land. The Shakyas are of the Kshatriya caste.
At the time of our first investigation he had just turned 5, and then, as at
the time of my second investigation, was still talking from the point of view
of being a married man and the father of five children. When I visited him in
January 1989, his father reported that he was saying less as a result of being
teased for being a chamar or untouchable.
When Ashok Kumar was still unable to talk, he would sometimes mime
limping. As he grew more verbal, which he did quickly, he once became
148 A. Mills
own house. There I have all my family." When asked the name of his village,
at first he answered by trying to walk towards it, limping; then he said
"Bandha" and then that he was from the village of Bandha. His mother
noted that he spoke very clearly in an adult fashion from an early age, and
had only recently, at the age of 5, started speaking falteringly in the language
of a child of his age.
Over time, Ashok Kumar said he had a wife and five children and was
most concerned about whether they had enough to eat. He continually
asked his parents to take him to see them. He would often say of things he
saw at his parents' house, "My wife doesn't have this. Go and give it to her."
He frequently would ask his mother to put aside her work so they could talk
about his family. Table 2 lists Ashok Kumar's statements, recognitions and
related behavior.
When the police were mentioned, Ashok Kumar said he was afraid of the
police and repeatedly said the chief of police had beaten him with a stick
after he had been in a fight near the fields. "If I happen to meet him I can
recognize him and will beat him now," Ashok Kumar told his mother.
Ashok Kumar told his father, "Let's go to the police station-you, me and
Awadesh-and we will beat the policeman who is in charge."
Ashok Kumar continued to mime limping and frequently told his par-
ents, "I came limping, limping to your house." He told us, "When I died,
with great difficulty I found the house of my mummy [Chandra Wati] and
she has walls of mud like this and I held onto those walls to walk and then
only I entered the house of my mummy. . . . I started from there [Bandha,
at death] and reached here at birth." In 1988 he added, "I came over here
limping, limping. I found one door was closed. I found another door was
closed. Then I found this door was open and I entered."
After Ashok Kumar had persisted in asking to go to his family in Bandha,
his parents came to conclude that their son was remembering a past life.
They thought he was from a good family because he used proper and polite
terms of address for relatives, terms not used by his parents. Ashok Kumar's
mother was familiar with the phenomenon of children claiming to be some-
one reborn because a girl, now about 29 years old, had identified herself as
the reincarnation of Chandra Wati's sister who had died at the age of 5.
However, Ashok Kumar's parents were annoyed at his continued demands
to be taken to his family and tried to make him forget by, as his father said,
"beating him and scolding him very badly." However, this did not have the
desired effect. Ashok Kumar would be annoyed and would not eat for as
much as 2 to 3 days.
On January 2, 1987 Ashok Kumar had not eaten for the whole day. When
his brother Awadesh returned from school at 4:00 p.m., Ashok Kumar
insisted, "I will only eat if you take me to my village. Let's start out from the
road. There will be a railroad crossing, then there will be a canal bridge and
near that is a small pond. Just near there I have built my own room and my
wife is staying there. Take me to my home."
Awadesh and his parents thought Ashok Kumar was referring to a town
named Bandha they knew of at some distance from Ritaur. Awadesh and
Ashok Kumar set out that day and were joined by two boys, Kuldeep and
Bablu. They carried Ashok Kumar on a bicycle but instead of pointing out
the road to the town of Bandha, Ashok Kumar pointed out the route he
thought they should take across the fields. As they got closer to a village
Ashok Kumar got off the bicycle saying, "My village is there," and led
the way.
The village of approximately 250 people that Ashok Kumar took them to
(indeed called Bandha) is about 4 km from Ritaur this back way across the
fields. To get to Bandha by road, one must go from Ritaur to Ekdil, from
there to Etawah, and then on the road north which takes one over the
railway crossing, and across the canal bridge, as Ashok Kumar had said. The
last 2 km to Bandha are impassable except on foot. This road route is a total
of 18 km.
No member of Ashok Kumar's family had ever been to this village of
Bandha before. Until Ashok Kumar arrived at Bandha, none of the people
we interviewed there had heard anything about him. The villagers of
Bandha were aware of the larger village of Ritaur, but those we interviewed
had no links with it. The closest market center to Bandha is Etawah, whereas
the closest market center to Ritaur is Ekdil. Word that Ashok Kumar spoke
of a past life had reached Ekdil, where an associate of Stevenson's had noted
the case.
Outside the village, Awadesh asked a woman taking goats to the field, "Is
there any man who died here? Maybe murdered, maybe hanged by bad
people?" The woman said, "No," and they walked on. Ashok Kumar told
his brother, "She is my mother." Awadesh scolded him saying, "You should
not call everyone your mother." In the village Ashok Kumar went straight
to the house of the late Kishen Behari Yadev and said, "This is my house."
A large crowd had gathered, and the village head man, Udal Singh, came
up and took charge. Wanting to check the truth of Ashok Kumar's state-
ment, he said to Ashok Kumar, "No, this is not your house," and took him
around the village suggesting other houses, some much more substantial,
were his. Again Ashok Kumar stopped in front of Kishen Behari's house
and said, "This is my house. I constructed this house." Udal Singh called
Kishen Behari's widow, Savitri, and said to her, "Come here. Probably your
dead child has taken birth."
Ashok Kumar went up to Savitri and laughed, and she took him on her
lap. He kept staring at her. She thought he was perhaps one of her two
children who had died after her husband, but Awadesh said, "It's not your
child. He keeps saying, 'I have five children and a wife,' so maybe your
husband has taken birth." Someone in the crowd asked Ashok Kumar,
"Who is she?" and he answered, "She is my wife." She then touched his feet
and he did not object. This was considered an indication that he saw her as
his wife.
TABLE 2
Summary of statements and recognitions and behavior of Ashok Kumar Shakya
- - -- -- --

1. He mimed limping. Shyam Babu Shakya, Gian Sri, Kishen Ashok Kumar did this when he could first walk, before
Ashok Kumar's Behari Yadev's he could talk.
father; Chandra father's younger Gian Sri said Kishen Behari could not stretch his legs
Wati Shakya, brother's wife in his final illness (0811 5/87).
Ashok Kumar's Not verified by Savitri Jadev and Teeja Jadev did not think anything
mother Savitri Jadev, was wrong with Kishen Behari's legs (01/08/89).
Kishen Behari's
widow, and
Teeja Jatev,
Kishen Behari's
2. He said he had his own Chandra Wati Savitri Jadev Ashok Kumar said this when annoyed at his mother,
house and family. when about 24 years old. ?
3. He said he was from Bandha. Chandra Wati Savitri Jadev When first asked the name of his village, Ashok Kumar
tried limping to it; later he said, "Bandha," and then
that he was from Bandha. He said he had come ;
;
limping from Bandha to his mother's house.
4. He said he had a wife and Awadesh Shakya, Laxmi Narain, Kishen Behari Jadev had five children at the time of his
five children. Ashok Kumar's Kishen Behari's death. Afterwards, the two youngest children died.
eldest brother eldest son Ashok Kumar seems to be unaware of these deaths.
Ashok Kumar told me he had five sons. This is
incorrect. The youngest of Kishen Behari's children
was a girl.
5. He persistently asked his Chandra Wati Savitri Jadev
parents to give food to his
wife as she didn't have
enough.
6. He said he was afraid of the Chandra Wati Laxmi Narain, Ashok Kumar wanted his father and elder brother to go
police as the chief of police Shyam Babu Shakya Gian Sri with him to beat the chief of police whom he said he
had beaten him after he was Awadesh Shakya could recognize.
in a fight.
7. He refused to eat when Chandra Wati He would refuse to eat for "two or three days."
scolded for asking to be Shyam Babu Shakya
taken to Bandha.
8. He described features on the Awadesh Shakya Observed by author This is en route by road.
way to Bandha, such as a
railroad crossing.
9. A canal bridge. Awadesh Shakya Observed by author This is en route by road.
10. A small pond. Awadesh Shakya Observed by author This is en route by road.
1 1. He pointed out the way to Awadesh Shakya Awadesh Shakya Ashok Kumar's parents thought he was referring to
Bandha. another Bandha, and did not know of the existence
of the other. However, the two village boys, Kuldeep
and Bablu, who accompanied Ashok Kumar and his
brother, had heard of it (but never been there).
Although Bandha is only 4 km. from Ritaur, it is on
r
a different road system and none of Ashok Kumar's 0
family were aware of its location or had been there $

previously. g.
P,
12. He recognized the village Awadesh Shakya s

when it was within sight. ;if
13. He said he had built his own Awadesh Shakya Savitri Jadev 2
home where his wife lived. ga
14. He identified Kishen Behari Awadesh Shakya Teeja Jadev Ashok Kumar identified a lady Awadesh Shakya spoke
Jadev's mother as his to outside the village as his mother. Awadesh later =1
mother. verified that she was the mother of Kishen Behari
Jadev.
15. He recognized his house. Awadesh Shakya Udal Singh, head Udal Singh tried to persuade Ashok Kumar that other
Udal Singh man of Bandha houses were his but Ashok Kumar again went to
Laxmi Narain Jadev Kishen Behari's house (afler being taken on a tour of
the village) and said he had constructed it, which was
true.
16. He recognized Savitri Jadev Savitri Jadev Udal Singh said Ashok Kumar was her child reborn
as his wife. but Awadesh said he spoke of having a wife and five
children. When asked who Savitri was, he said she
was his wife.
(continued) ;3,
C
C
TABLE 2 (continued) vl
N

17. He recognized his eldest son. Laxmi Narain Jadev Laxmi Narain When Ashok Kumar asked for his eldest son, anyone
Jadev coming forward could be construed to be identifying
himself as such.
18. He called the eldest son Laxmi Narain Jadev Not correct Seven months later Ashok Kumar still gave the
"Rakesh." incorrect name "Rakesh," for Laxmi Narain. By
01/08/89 he was calling him by the correct name.
19. He recognized Bhateshwar Awadesh Shakya Bahateshwar
Dayal and called him by Dayal, Kishen
name. Behari's brother
20. When taken from Bandha, Laxmi Narain Jadev
Ashok Kumar resisted.
2 1. He recognized a road he had Chandra Wati Shakya Verified by N. K.
made. Chadha ?
22. He recognized the place Chandra Wati Shakya Verified by N. K. I failed to ask if Kishen Behari had been sick first by
where he had been sick. Chadha the pond. g.
C
23. He used to take baths in the Chandra Wati Shakya Savitri Jadev Ashok Kumar not only mentioned this to his mother Z
canal with his wife. as they passed the canal, but invited his wife to go
with him.
24. He expected his wife to treat Chandra Wati Shakya Savitri Jadev Ashok Kumar asked Savitri to make food for his
his mother as a mother-in- mother and brothers, and told his mother to take her
law. back and she will cook for her, forgetting caste
differences which mean the Shakyas do not take food
from the Jadevs, as untouchables.
25. He recognized his mama Awadesh Shakya Bhateshwar Dayal Kishen Behari's mama slapped Ashok Kumar's knee in
(mother's brother). greeting at Bandha. At Ritaur he said that was his
mama, and when checked, they found that Kishen
Behari was close to this man and called him mama,
although he was a village mama (or mother's
brother) rather than an actual one.
26. He recognized Mathura Bhateshwar Dayal Ashok Kumar's reported words were that he had seen
Prasad. this man cutting grass on his first trip to Bandha. If
Ashok Kumar gave his name, we have not recorded
this. Thus what was assumed to be a recognition
could have been merely a correct observation.
27. He recognized his brother- Shyam Babu Shakya When the brother-in-law visited him, Ashok Kumar
in-law. said he had given his goat back, but did not name the
brother-in-law. Kishen Behari had returned the goat
lent by his sister and brother-in-law, when he was ill.
He then fell ill again and died.
28. He recognized his sister's Bhateshwar Dayal Recognition took place after Ashok Kumar was asked
husband's brother. if he remembered returning the goat to his house.
Thus mention of something Kishen Behari had done
triggered Ashok Kumar's memory, although it is
possible that Ashok Kumar learned of the goat
z5'
0
incident after going to Bandha.
29. Ashok Kumar was distressed Chandra Wati Shakya ii
that his mother does not g.
P7
give more jaggery to "my ec

brother." 3
30. He identified area where he Ashok Kumar Verified by N. K. As this was said after we left Bandha, it was not verified 'g,
was beaten by five people. Chadha by the people from Bandha. 5'
3 1. He asked that they bring a Ashok Kumar As Ashok Kumar's father notes, his main attraction in g.
0
dothi [cloth] for his wife, for his wife. ec
and later says he cannot
take her home until they do.
32. He identified spot where he Shyam Babu Shakya Unverified Ashok Kumar's parents asked that no verification be
had buried some money. made as they suspect that in burying the money
Kishen Behari had disturbed a discarnate being who
is responsible for his death, and they fear it may
attack Ashok Kumar as well. By 0 1 /08/89 Kishen
Behari's relatives have heard of this statement, but
doubt its veracity, saying Kishen Behari had no
money to bury.
154 A. Mills
Ashok Kumar called for his eldest son, who came, and was recognized by
him, but when asked his name he said, "Rakesh." In fact Kishen Behari's
eldest son's name is Laxmi Narain. Ashok Kumar persisted after three
subsequent visits in calling him by the wrong name. The name Rakesh has
no special significance to Savitri's family.
Kishen Behari's mother heard what was happening and returned from the
fields where she had taken the goats; she was the woman that Ashok Kumar
had told his brother was his mother as they approached Bandha. Someone
asked Ashok Kumar who she was and he said, "My mother," but not in her
hearing. She took Ashok Kumar on her lap and asked, "Am I your
mother?" He did not say anything, but she said that he answered with his
eyes that she was. In fact he had already recognized her.
On this first trip to Bandha Ashok Kumar is said to have recognized
Kishen Behari's chacha [father's younger brother] Shyam La1 and Kishen
Behari's younger brother Bhateshwar Dayal whom he called by name.
When it was time to leave, Ashok Kumar told Awadesh, "You go. I will stay
here." When they took him with them, Ashok Kumar cried. The relatives of
the late Kishen Behari Jatev (as well as Ashok Kumar's relatives) were
convinced that Ashok Kumar Shakya was Kishen Behari Jatev reborn.
Kishen Behari Jatev had in fact died in the month of Phaghan (February
12-March 12) in about 1981 when about 45 years old, we learned from
interviewing his brother, wife, son, mother and chachi [father's younger
brother's wife]. He had been a laborer without land who had worked for
other farmers. He was a member of the lowest or chamar caste formerly
considered outside the caste system or "untoucl~able."Once Kishen Behari
had become involved in a fight over who owned some land he had been
hired to work and was subsequently caught by the chief of police, who
beat him.
Kishen Behari was described as a hard-working man who had been quite
unhappy being a laborer only able to earn enough money for food for the
day. Shortly before he fell ill he had built a small mud house for himself and
his wife and five children. He had fallen ill, grew better, then worse and after
an illness of 15 days, died with one leg paralyzed from the illness. Three or 4
days after his death, Kishen Behari's brother Bhateshwar Dayal reported
that he appeared to him in a dream saying, "Why are you weeping? I have
come to you."
On March 26, 1987 Ashok Kumar made a second trip to Bandha, in the
company of his mother and two brothers. As they approached the village,
Ashok Kumar pointed out where he had been beaten by the police, the road
he had worked on, the canal where he and his wife took baths after slipping
out of the village, and the pond near which he had fallen ill with vomiting
and diarrhea. Once at Savitri's house, Ashok Kumar told her to prepare
food for his mother and brothers, and suggested that his mother take his wife
home as her daughter-in-law. However, both Savitri and Chandra Wati
know the Shakyas will not eat food cooked at the home of such low-caste
people. Ashok Kumar spoke intimately to Savitri as a husband to a wife,
saying, "Stop the mother over here and we will go to take a bath in the canal
as we went earlier in the night." Savitri responded, "Stop these things. Don't
talk like this," but later asked him, "Won't you take me back with you?" to
which Ashok Kumar replied, "Not this time. Next time when I bring clothes
for you I will take you." As Ashok Kumar left he stopped at Bhateshwar
Dayal's house. There a man slapped Ashok Kumar's knee in affection,
asking, "Don't you recognize me?" At that time Ashok Kumar did not
respond, but when he returned to Ritaur Ashok Kumar said, "He was my
mama [mother's brother]." Later when Kishen Behari's brother came to
Bandha to visit Ashok Kumar, he confirmed that he and Kishen Behari
called this man mama, although he was a classificatory or village mother's
brother rather than an actual one. The witnesses felt that Ashok Kumar
could not have learned this identity while at Bhateshwar Dayal's, although I
would not rule out this possibility. This mama and Kishen Behari had been
particularly close.
Between January and mid-August 1987, Bhateshwar Dayal and Laxmi
Narain and various other relatives of Kishen Behari visited Ashok Kumar in
Ritaur three times. Ashok Kumar said to Mathur Prasad, a friend of Kishen
Behari's who came with Bhateshwar Dayal, "When I came to my house the
first time you were cutting grass for the cattle." This was indeed true. He did
not recognize Kishen Behari's sister's husband's brother until Bhateshwar
Dayal prompted him saying, "Do you remember you took a goat to his
house?" Ashok Kumar said, "Yes. Now I remember you." Again, one can-
not confidently rule out normal means of Ashok Kumar arriving at this
information.
On one of these visits, after the Shakyas had given some brown sugar
candy to Bhateshwar Dayal, Ashok Kumar came crying to his mother say-
ing, "You have so much jaggery here and you gave so little to my brother."
After going to Bandha, Ashok Kumar once beat his mother to try to get
her to give millet to his family. Once when asked to eat Ashok Kumar said
to his father, "Give rasaya [a dish made of cane sugar and rice] to my son
and then I will eat." They told him they would send rasaya and then he ate.
Another time he told his father, "Give bajara [millet] to my son because he
is feeling cold." Ashok Kumar's father was struck by this statement because,
"A child his age would not know that the composition of bajara is hot."
We took Ashok Kumar and his mother and brother Awadesh to Bandha
on August 18, for what was Ashok Kumar's third trip, and observed his
familiarity with Savitri and Kishen Behari's relatives. As we walked to the
village, Ashok Kumar pointed out where he had worked and where he had
been beaten and where he had become ill. As we returned I asked him if that
was from the beating. Ashok Kumar said, "I got sick and I vomited and got a
fever. I went to the doctor and I used up all my money and I was still sick. I
156 A. Mills
borrowed money and went to the doctor but I got worse and I died. Then I
was limping, limping. My knee was broken from the sickness."
Kishen Behari's relatives seemed reluctant to answer my question about
whether there was any association between the police beating and his death.
However, some were clear that Kishen Behari's knee and leg were not
affected by his fatal illness. This description fitted the information we had
gathered in Bandha previously, in Ashok Kumar's absence, but by this time
Ashok Kumar could well have heard a description of Kishen Behari's death.
On return from his third trip to Bandha, Ashok Kumar told his mother
that he had buried some money near the pond at Bandha and he fell ill over
there. From this his parents suspected that he had disturbed an evil spirit, by
which they meant a discarnate soul who lurks around the pond, and that this
had caused Kishen Behari's illness and death. The father asked that no
verification be made of the buried money because he is afraid the evil spirit
will pounce on Ashok Kumar and "I will lose my child."
When I returned in the summer of 1988, I learned that Ashok Kumar had
been invited to the wedding of Kishen Behari's eldest son. He went in the
company of Awadesh, and refused to return home, so Awadesh left him in
Bandha over night, he and his mother fetching Ashok Kumar back the
following day. He has not apparently made any further statements that were
identified as being information that Kishen Behari knew and Ashok Kumar
could not be expected to, although the conviction of Kishen Behari's rela-
tives that Ashok Kumar is Kishen Behari is by now so complete that they
would not necessarily note new revelations made by him.
Evaluation of the Paranormal Features of the Case. Ashok Kumar made 12
verified statements before going to Bandha or en route and 12 after arriving.
He recognized eight people and correctly identified four locations. However,
he gave the wrong name for Laxmi Narain, and persisted for some time in
thinking he was named Rakesh. His statement to me that all his children are
sons is also incorrect. In fact the youngest child of Kishen Behari was a girl
who died, as did her next elder brother, after Kishen Behari's death. Ashok
Kumar is apparently not aware that two of Kishen Behari's children have
died.
To Westerners it seems extraordinary that the density of villages in this
part of India could mean that people in one village would not know of the
existence of another one 4 km away. However, I have found no one who
does not concur that this was the case. If true, then Ashok Kumar had no
normal means of knowing about a man from Bandha with a wife and five
children who had been beaten by the police and died, and no motive for
identifying with such a person.
Case 3: Toran Singh, Alias Titu, of the Village Bad

The informants for this case at Bad were Toran Singh, his father Mahavir
Singh (a friend of Suresh Verme). In Agra, the informants were Suresh
Verme's wife Uma Verme; his brothers Mahesh Verme, Raja Babu Verme,
Rajvir Babu Verme, and Om Kar Singh; his father Chanda Babu Singh
Bharity; and his mother Burfi Devi Singh.
Toran Singh, called Titu, is the youngest of the six children of Mahavir
Prasad Verme Singh and Shanti Devi of the village of Bad (population about
1,000),which is 13.5 km from Agra. Titu's eldest brother, Ashok Kumar, is
about 13 years his elder; next is Titu's other brother, Raj Kumar, about 10
years his senior. Titu's eldest sister, Asha, is about 8 years his senior; the
second sister, Kunta, about 6 years his senior, and the third sister, Guloo,
was said to be somewhere between 1 to 3 years his senior. There do not
appear to be any records of the exact birthdates.
Titu's father and his family are of the Vaishya caste and own considerable
agricultural land around Bad which they farm. However, Mahavir Singh
goes every school day to Agra where he teaches chemistry in grades 1 1 and
12 in Hubbulal Inter-College. Titu lives with his family in a substantial
single story traditional cement house.
Titu's mother was ill the last trimester of her pregnancy with Titu and was
admitted to the Military Hospital in Agra about a week before his birth
under the name of a friend of the family's who was a member of the military
personnel and therefore eligible to use this hospital. The only registration of
a birth corresponding to the name of this friend and Titu's mother gives
December 11, 1982, as the date of birth. It is possible that Titu's birth was
not registered, and/or that the December 11, 1982 date corresponds to the
birth of the friend's child. Titu's parents thought he was 4 and a half rather
than 3 and a half in 1987, although Titu's father gave his birthdate as
December 10, 1983, the first time we met before the hospital search.
According to Shanti Devi, Titu began talking when he was a year and a
half, earlier than the rest of her children. Shortly thereafter Titu told her,
"Tell my grandfather to look after my children and my wife. I am having my
meals here and I am worried about them." When his mother asked, "Who
are you?" Titu said, "I am from Agra. I don't know how I came here."
At an early age Titu also began saying, "Mummy, please don't go out in
these clothes. I feel embarrassed by them. My wife had beautiful saris." Titu
made a number of other complaints. He said, "Your house is dirty. I will not
stay. My house is very big," and "My sisters-in-law are educated," and "My
brothers had beautiful shirts which you have not seen." When he was ex-
pected to walk or go on a bus, Titu would say, "I used to go by car. I will not
go on foot or in a bus."
When Titu was very young, he went with his family to a wedding in Agra.
As they traveled to Agra, Titu said several times, "I have a shop in Sadar
Bazaar," although they did not go near this district of Agra. His parents paid
no attention to this remark at the time.
As Titu grew older he would cry almost every day, wanting to "go home."
He commonly referred, as he continues to do, to his parents as "Guloo's
158 A. Mills
mother and father," rather than calling them his own. He frequently asked
to go see, "My brother Raja Babu and my sister Susheela," particularly
when scolded. Titu complained to his father, "You go every day to Agra but
you don't bring any news of my family."
One day in April, 1987, Titu was crying very bitterly as his father once
again left for Agra without him. A friend of Titu's eldest brother took him
on his lap, and Titu said, in his brother's hearing, "My father doesn't take
me. Can you take me there? I have a shop of transistor radios and I was a big
smuggler and goonda [someone who uses force to get his way]. I am the
owner of Suresh Radio."
After this, Titu's eldest brother and his friend sought out the Suresh Radio
shop, which turned out to be in Sadar Bazaar in Agra. They had never been
to the shop before. They told Uma Verme, the widow of the owner, what
Titu had been saying. They learned that Suresh Verrne, the owner of Suresh
Radio (and a noted smuggler on the black market) had been shot dead
August 28, 1983 in his car. He was about 30 years old.
Uma Verrne related this to Suresh's family, and shortly thereafter they set
out to visit this child. At first they went to the Bad which is near Mathura.
They could not find any child meeting Titu's description, and then learned
that there was another village called Bad on the other side of Agra. A party
consisting of Uma Verme, Burfi Devi (Suresh's mother), Suresh's father
(Chanda Babu Singh Bharity), and three of Suresh's four brothers (Rajvir
Babu Verme, Mahesh Verme, and Raja Babu Verme) amved in Bad early
one morning in April, 1987.
When Titu saw the party approach, he was very excited. He recognized
Uma Verme, Suresh's father and mother and two of the three brothers. He
correctly described a trip he had taken to Dolpur with Uma and the children
whom he called by their nicknames, Mono and Tono, and the chatt and
kulji they had eaten. Titu asked why his children had not been brought.
When queried Titu correctly described how he [Suresh Verme] had been
killed, saying, "While I was near my house, three people stopped me. One
shot me and then they ran off. I did not see their faces." When asked where
he was shot, Titu said, "They came from the left side and after shooting ran
away." Titu described Suresh's home and some of its unique features, such
as its shape, the placement of lamps, and a room "which remains locked."
Titu accompanied the Vermes as they went to the road and noted that
they had not brought his car. "This is not my car. My car was white," he
said. He played the tape deck in the car, although he had not previously seen
one, and insisted on driving the car, which he did with Raja Babu's help,
working the brake, gas and clutch pedals. When the party left, Titu wanted
to go with them and threw his shoes at his mother Shanti Devi saying, "I am
not yours. You are not my mother." In all of this excitement, Titu did not
greet Suresh's brother Mahesh Verme, although neither did Titu deliber-
ately slight him. Nonetheless, Mahesh Verme was hurt at not being ac-
Later that day Raja Babu Verme returned with two sisters of the late
Suresh Verme. When Titu saw Susheela Devi, he said, "Susheela Gigi,
Susheela Gigi." [Gigi means "sister."] Asked which was his elder sister, Titu
said neither was. In fact Suresh's eldest sister is Munni Rani, who was not
present.
Taken that afternoon to Suresh's brothers' radio and TV shop, Titu in-
sisted it was not his, although Raja Babu tried to mislead him by claiming it
was Suresh Radio. He was then taken by car to Suresh Radio, which is about
100 yards away. Titu said, "This is my shop." Inside Titu said, "This show-
case was not here; who got it constructed?" Indeed the showcase he was
indicating had been built and installed after the death of Suresh.
Titu identified a large, garlanded photo of Suresh on the wall as himself.
He also identified the cash drawer (which looks like any of a number of
drawers behind the counter in the shop), and recognized the manager of the
shop by name.
Titu was then taken to the home of Chanda Babu Singh Bharity, Suresh's
father. He said it was not his house [kothi]. This was interpreted by Mahesh
to mean Titu did not recognize the house, while other members of Suresh's
family interpreted this statement, I think correctly, to mean that it was not
Suresh's home. Suresh Verme and Uma Verme had lived in their own
modern house [kothi] which was the one Titu had described to Uma Verme
earlier in the day and to which he apparently expected to be taken.
At Chanda Singh Bharity's home, Titu told Suresh's mother, "I am just
passing through with these people who do not have a T.V., a car, a video. I
will run away to you." When Titu's father, Mahavir Singh, tried to take him
home to Bad, Titu hugged Suresh's father, and fought Mahavir Singh and
tore his shirt. Chanda Singh said, "Son, go. I will come see you."
Suresh's relatives noted that day that Titu has a small round birthmark
that looks like a bullet entry wound, at the site on the right temple where
Suresh was shot (see Figure 1). They conjectured that several small birth-
marks on the back of Titu's skull might be the bullet exit site. Suresh's
mother and wife noted that Titu also has another birthmark on the crown of
the head that corresponds to one which Suresh Verme had at birth (accord-
ing to his mother) and at death (according to his wife).
According to Suresh Verme's postmortem report, which we examined at
the hospital where he was declared dead, the bullet that took his life entered
on the right temple at the site corresponding to Titu's circular birthmark.
The postmortem report said that the bullet exited behind Suresh's right ear.
After noting this, I returned to Titu and examined behind his right ear and
found that Titu's skull is pushed out at the site indicated as the bullet exit
site (see Figure 2). Titu's parents had noted this deformity of the skull, but
had not associated it with Suresh's death. Titu had not mentioned the mode
of death of Suresh until asked by Rajvir Babu Verme at their first meeting.
This is noteworthy, as 77% (p < -05)of the subjects in solved cases in India
mention the previous personality's mode of death, and 98% (p < .05) when
TABLE 3
Summary of statements and recognitions and behavior of Toran Singh, Alias Titu
1. He said he had a Shanti Devi Singh, Titu's Uma Verme, Suresh Shanti Devi said Titu was about a year and a half.
wife and children. mother Verme's widow
2. He said he was Shanti Devi Chanda Babu Bharity,
from Agra. Suresh Verme's father
3. He said his house Mahavir Singh, Titu's father Observed by author He also said, "This house is dirty, I don't know how
was big. Shanti Devi I came here." Titu's parents' house is not dirty
but a large cement village or country style house
where cooking is done on a floor hearth. Suresh's
parental home has three stories and modem
amenities, e.g. TV, and a cooler. Suresh Verme's
own home is modem. Note that there is no ?
socioeconomic difference between Titu and
Suresh's families. Both fathers were lecturers.
5
L
L
V1
Suresh's father notes that Titu's family has
considerable agricultural land and is related to
the royal family.
4. He is embarrassed Shanti Devi Observed by author Shanti Devi was wearing older cotton saris three of
by his mother's the four times I saw her.
clothes.
5. He says his wife Mahavir Singh Observed by author The three times I saw Uma Verme she was wearing
has beautiful saris. very nice chiffon style saris appropriate for a
wealthy business woman.
6. He says his Shanti Devi Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Mahesh Verme's wife has two post high school
sisters-in-law are degrees, first class. I did not inquire about the
educated. education of the other sisters-in-law.
7. He says his Mahavir Singh Observed by author Raja Babu particularly, but also Mahesh and Rajvir
brothers have Verme wore stylish synthetic shirts, while Titu's
beautiful shirts. brothers wore plain cotton ones.
8. He said he had a Shanti Devi Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Titu asked to see them often, saying he would tell
sister named his sister Susheela or brother Raja Babu, when he
Susheela Devi and was scolded. (Titu gave an example of this
behavior when we first visited him, telling the
9. a brother named taxi driver he would tell Raja Babu the driver
Raja Babu. would not let him in the car, saying, "and he will
set you straight," but this is after meeting
Suresh's family.)
10. He said he would Mahavir Singh Mahesh Verme Mahesh Verme indirectly said it was like Suresh to
not go by bus or refuse to go by foot. I did not specifically ask
on foot. whether Suresh had an aversion to going by these
11. He said he had a Mahavir Singh Uma Verme

means, but as a prosperous man with a foreign
car, that is likely.
Titu first said this when very small when he was
rti'
shop in Sadar taken to Agra for a wedding, although they did
Bazaar. not pass near the Sadar Bazaar. He repeated this
statement several times when very young. Suresh
2
Radio is in Sadar Bazaar. s
12. He cried daily to Shanti Devi He said to his father, "You go daily to Agra but you 3
a
go to his family. A. K. Singh, Titu's eldest don't bring any news of my family." =.
0
brother
13. He said, "I have a A. K. Singh Uma Verme, Suresh g.
P,
shop of transistor Verme's widow s

radios."
14. He said he was a A. K. Singh Informants in Agra While Suresh's family did not mention smuggling,
big smuggler and understandably, other residents of Agra
a goonda confirmed that Suresh was noted for dealing on
(someone who the black market.
gets things by
force).
15. He said he was A. K. Singh Uma Verrne
the owner of
Suresh Radio.
(continued) -z
TABLE 3 (continued) c.
b\
N
1 6. He recognized Burfi Devi, Suresh's mother Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Suresh's parents said Titu hugged her, called her
Burfi Devi as his "Mataji [dear Mother]," sat on her lap, and they
mother. both cried. Rajvir Verme said his mother wept,
but was not sure Titu had. Mahesh Verme, the
brother who was not greeted, denied that Titu
had "properly" recognized Suresh's mother.
17. He gave the Mahesh Verme Suresh's Urna Verme Titu had asked, "Why didn't you bring my
nicknames of his third brother. children?" Asked if he had any, he said, "Mono
children. Rajvir Verme, Suresh's and Tono," the nicknames of Suresh's sons,
second brother. Sachin Singh and Amit Singh.
18. He recognized Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Shanti Devi recalled that both Titu and Chanda
Chanda Babu Babu Singh Bharity wept. Titu hugged him and
Singh Bharity. called him "Papaji [dear Father]."
19. He recognized Uma Verme Uma Verme Titu was asked, "Who is she?' by Suresh's father. .P
Uma, Suresh's Mahesh Verme
wife. Chanda Babu Singh Bharity i5
C
5;
Burfi Devi
20. He described a Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Uma Verme Rajvir Verme recalled that Titu had said they went
trip he had taken to Dolpur because his sister was living there
to Dolpur with (correct). I have not yet asked if anyone else
Urna and the heard this.
children.
2 1. He said they had Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Uma Verme
eaten chatt and
kufi on that trip.
22. Titu asked if the Shanti Devi The query contains no new evidence. At the time of
children were at Suresh's death they were preschool age.
home or studying
at school.
23. He described his Urna Verme Urna Verme Urna called this "confidential things." The lights
house, giving were custom made.
details of the
shape, and the
lights.
24. He said a room in Mahesh Verme Mahesh Verme One room was kept locked with scrap material
the house was inside. He used the word kothi for his house.
kept locked.
25. Titu recognized Rajvir Singh Verme, Chanda Singh Bharity
Rajvir Babu. Suresh' second brother Bharity
26. Titu recognized Mahesh Verme Raja Babu Verme Titu called him by the name Suresh used,
Raja Babu. "Raghubhaya."
27. He said he was Rajvir Babu Verme Postmortem report Titu had not mentioned the mode of death before
shot. Uma Verme he was asked. He then described Suresh murder
in detail, some of which has never been verified.
28. He said he was Mahesh Verme Postmortem report Once Mahesh said left, but he said right two other
shot from the times. ?J
right. c.
29. He says they have Uma Verme Uma Verme Suresh Verme had a Fiat. They came in a Maruthi.
not brought his
car.
30. He said his car Uma Verme Uma Verme The Fiat was white. This is the car in which he was
was white. murdered. They insist the Maruthi was his, but
Titu insists it is not.
3 1. He insists he can Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Chanda Babu Singh Titu insisted on trying, working the gas, clutch, and
drive. brake petals and steering, and drove it slightly
with Raja Babu's help. Raja Babu noted Titu's
and Suresh's common passion for cars.
32. He plays the tape Mahesh Verme Mahavir Singh Titu had never seen a tape-deck or tape recorder
deck in the car. before, but worked it on his own.
33. He asks to see his Rajvir Verme Rajvir Verme Titu was then told his sister who lives in Delhi was
sister in Delhi. Shanti Devi currently in Agra and he told them to tell her to
Chanda Singh Bharity come see him.
34. He recognizes Chanda Babu Singh Bharity He said, "Susheela Gigi [sister]." His own he does
Suresh's sister not call by this kin term but by name only.
Susheela. The informant was not a witness to this, and I
failed to check this with the first-hand witnesses
of this item.
(continued) -
0\
W
"Guloo's father," relatives. Titu used the same method to refer to
and "Guloo's and address his siblings. After meeting Suresh's
mother." family, Titu wanted to go home with them. He
threw his shoes at his mother, saying, "You are
not my mother."
36. He notes "his" Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Chanda Babu Singh Bharity This occurred later the same day when Suresh's two
eldest sister is not younger sisters came to visit and Titu's mother
present. asked him which was the eldest. Suresh's father is
a second hand witness to this. Confirmation from
the primary witnesses has not yet been sought.
37. He insisted on Raja Babu Verme There is some confusion over whether Titu meant .3
"going home." going to Suresh's own home or Suresh's parents'
home.
3
w
L
V)
38. He recognizes Raja Babu Verme Raja Babu Verme Raja Babu took Titu first to his own radio/TV shop
Suresh Radio. and claimed it was Suresh Radio. Titu was
adamant it was not. When taken to Suresh Radio
he said it was his.
39. He identifies a Mahesh Verme Mahavir Singh Mahesh asked this as a test, confident that Titu
TV. would not have seen one. His father confirmed
that he had not. Mahesh said Titu had to rack his
brain to come up with the name.
40. He identifies a Uma Verme Uma Verme Titu asked who had it made.
showcase made
after Suresh's
death as not there
previously.
4 1. He identifies a Uma Verme Uma Verme The prominence of the photograph in Suresh Radio
photograph of Raja Babu Verme might suggest its identity.
Suresh as himself.
42. He identified the Uma Verme Uma Verme When asked, "What is this?'Titu answered
cash drawer. Mr. Raju, manager of correctly. The drawer looks like all the other
Suresh Radio drawers behind the counter.
Raja Babu Verme
43. He insisted on Raja Babu Verme His choice of the most expensive was construed as
taking a transistor showing his continued knowledge of these
radio home. matters. Titu had not seen such an item before,
according to his father. This could have been a
chance choice, or based on what was most
attractive of the radios to any young child,
however.
44. He said Suresh's Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Mahesh Verme interpreted this statement to mean
parents' home is that Titu did not recognize Suresh's parental
not his. home. Suresh's parents interpret it to mean it is ??
not Suresh's own home. Given that Titu had
Em
0
described Suresh's home earlier that day, it is
likely that he expected to be taken there. Chanda
g.
Babu Singh Bharity and Titu recognized the
parental home. Suresh's mother heard him say he '
had a different home. Suresh was the only son to
have a separate house [kothi].Titu's attachment
to Suresh's parents was demonstrated by his na
telling Chanda Babu Singh Bharity that he was
his only father, and resisting being taken home by '
his own father, whose shirt be tore. Titu told
Suresh's mother, "I am just passing through with
these people who have no TV, car, video. I will
come back to you."
45. He recognized Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Suresh's two children were assembled with a group
one of Suresh's of other children to see if he would recognize
sons. them. This was a month and a half after the first
meeting, so it is possible that Titu had seen a
picture of them. He said, "You have not said
namastay [greeted] me," to the elder son.
(continued)
V,
TABLE 3 (continued)

-- -
46. He said what Chanda Babu Singh Bharity Uma Verme (verification of Titu said a policeman took the 15,000 rupees from
happened to the money) the trunk of the car. This has not been verified.
money he had Whether Suresh was still conscious when the
with him at the police arrived is not clear.
time he was
murdered.
47. He said there are Mahavir Singh Mahavir Singh Titu demanded that his parents take him there. I
twelve Ashok accompanied him a second time but failed to ?
trees at "his"
home.
count the number of Ashok trees.
s
CL
ii
48. He recognized an Raja Babu Verme Raja Babu Verme This friend had been out of town until 1987, when
old friend of he came to see Titu. Titu asked what happened
Suresh's, Ashok to the fans he had installed in his car. Raja Babu
Kumar. Verme recalled that Suresh had done so. This
occurred when Titu was riding in a taxi with me,
of the Ambassador make. Titu apparently
thought this was Ashok Kumar's car, which was
an Ambassador.
49. He said one of In my presence Not confirmed Rajvir Verrne checked the car for bullets after the
the bullets hit the murder, and said the steering wheel was not hit.
steering wheel. Uma heard two shots, however.
50. He said he went In my presence Mahesh Verme This was in response to Mahesh's questioning in the
to Mahesh's summer of 1987. Titu could have learned this
wedding in normally by then.
Kanpur by car.
5 1. He slapped stool In my presence Raja Babu Singh This "macho" gesture was characteristic of Suresh,
in Suresh Radio according to Raja Babu Singh.
F
upon entering 2.
and leaving. 0
r
52. He went swiftly In my presence This was the first time Titu had gone upstairs in
by himself to the
second floor of
Suresh Radio. He did so spontaneously, without
seeing anyone else do so, as if he knew what he
$
the shop and was doing. The existence of a second floor was s
commended
workman.
not obvious. -;if5:
'U
0
5 3. He said there was In my presence Uma Verme This had held a TV antenna. This was on his w
a pole on the roof second trip to Suresh's house. g.
of his house. s
54. He said he had In my presence Unverified Uma Verme did not think this likely enough to
buried a gold belt check. Titu sized up which tree it would be
under the tallest shrewdly.
Ashok tree at
"his" house.
168 A. Mills
Fig. 1 . Birthmark on the skull of Titu which corresponds to the bullet entry site as described in
Suresh Verme's postmortem report.
the mode of death was violent (Cook, Pasricha, Samararatne, U Win

Maung, & Stevenson, 1983).
Suresh's family and Titu's family are not related but of the same caste.
The name of the father of the accused murderer is the same as Titu's father.
Both families are from the same general area and caste. This caused the
Verrne family to suspect (illogically) that Titu's family had fabricated the
case to save their relative from conviction. Mahesh Verme, the brother to
whom Titu did not speak at the initial meeting, was particularly suspicious.
To date Titu had passed the tests Mahesh and his family have set up. For
example, when Suresh's sons first returned home from the boarding school
they attend in Dehra Dun (after the meeting between the Vermes and Titu),
Fig. 2. Birthmark on the skull of Titu which corresponds to the bullet exit site as described in
Suresh Verne's postmortem report.
they were placed amidst a group of other children in Chanda Singh Bharity's
home, and Titu was brought there. Titu went to Suresh's eldest son and said,
"Why did you not say namastay [the polite and correct greeting] to me?"
The family felt satisfied that Titu had recognized him.
During the course of our investigation, when we took Titu to Mahesh's
shop Titu called him by name, which he could easily have learned to do by
normal means. When a pleased and startled Mahesh asked Titu where his
(Mahesh's) wedding had been ("Lucknow, Kanpur, Mathura?"), Titu cor-
rectly answered, "Kanpur." Asked whether he had gone Titu said he had.
Asked how he had gone, Titu said, "By car." However, as with the recogni-
tion of Suresh's son, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that Titu
could have this information through normal means.
Titu had insisted that his parents take him to Suresh's house (kothi),
which Uma Verme is currently renting out. The tenants allowed him to
come inside, where Titu described having had a particular cabinet made. He
also insisted that he had buried a gold belt under a particular tree, a state-
170 A. Mills
ment which has not been verified (see Table 3). In January 1989, I took Titu
to this house in the company of Uma Verme and her sons. Again Titu
claimed he had buried a gold belt under a particular tree which he pointed
out. He also went on the roof and commented that there used to be a pole
there (now absent), which Uma verified. However, the other statements he
made incorporated information he has learned through normal means since
meeting the Verme family.
The Vermes note the similarity of temperament of Titu and Suresh: both
are highly active, intrepid and hot-tempered individuals. I observed these
qualities in Titu, who beat a boy as hard as he could with a sugar cane frond
because he was annoyed at the crowd that had,gathered when I wanted to
photograph him. When we took Titu to Suresh Radio, Titu gave a stool
inside the shop a resounding smack as he entered, a very "macho" gesture.
Hearing music from upstairs, he went directly to the back of the shop and up
the back stairs to a room above the shop where a worker was repairing a tape
recorder, and said in the manner of a proprietor, "He is doing good work."
Going back downstairs he brushed aside an offer to help him down the steep
stairs and as we left, again gave the stool a resounding slap. Querying Su-
resh's brothers later, we were told this was a common gesture of Suresh's.
Later that day, Titu grew furious when it was time for him and his father
to leave the taxi in which we had brought them to Suresh Radio and resume
their travels on Mahavir Singh's motor scooter. Titu threw something at his
father and tried to pull away from his grip as hard as he could. Another day
at his home, Titu told the bangle seller whom his mother had called to fit
bangles on my wrist, "I will shoot you if you charge them. I will kick you out
of the courtyard."
Suresh's father said that Suresh was not afraid to fight. In 1975 eight
goonda or "hit men" took Suresh and put him in their car. He kicked one
and jumped through the window into the river, swam across and came out
the other side, thus escaping. Within the year before his murder, Suresh
went to recover two cars presumably stolen by the same man who had
previously stolen his car (the man later accused of Suresh's murder). Suresh
was fired upon but jumped from the car and caught one of the gunmen by
the neck.
On my return trips in 1988 and 1989, Titu was still intensely identifying
himself as Suresh. For example, two days before I returned to Agra in July
1988, Titu had insisted that his parents take him to the home of Chanda
Babu Singh Bharity, Suresh's father. When they arrived Titu discovered that
Chanda Babu Singh Bharity was sick, and gave orders for a doctor to be
fetched and medicine administered.
When I returned in January 1989, Titu's father expressed concern about
possible trouble if Titu persists in thinking he is entitled to Suresh's property
as he grows older. I tried to reassure him by pointing out that Stevenson has
found that children with apparent past-life memories seem to forget them by
the time they are 7 or 8. Titu fairly shouted, " I will not forgetp' Titu was
presumably 6 at the time. Although, as noted above, his statements may

now incorporate information he has acquired since the two families have
met, Suresh's family continues to be amazed at the knowledge Titu displays
of Suresh's affairs.
Evaluation of the Paranormal Features of the Case. Titu made 15 verified

statements or acts before meeting the Vermes, and 31 since (although some
may contain information he has learned normally). One of these 31 state-
ments is apparently incorrect: Titu said a second bullet hit the steering
wheel. While Uma Verrne heard two shots, Suresh Verme's eldest brother
says he carefully examined the car after his brother's death, searching for the
fatal bullet, and did not notice any sign of the steering wheel having been hit.
Titu has correctly identified 10 people and four locations. Items 40, 46, 49
and 52 in Table 3 have not been verified.
The most discrepant piece of information in this case is the date of birth of
Titu and the date of death of Suresh. If Titu was born December 11, 1982,
the date given in the hospital register for the birth of a son of Titu's father's
military friend, then he was born 8 months and 17 days before Suresh
Verme was murdered. While there are cases on record of Prakash Pravesh,
or the entry of the soul of a deceased person into the body of someone just
dead (Stevenson, 1974)' and of Prakaya Pravesh, or the entry of a soul into
someone still alive (Stevenson & Pasricha, 1979)' the entry of Suresh into
Titu when Titu was a small child would not explain the existence of the
mark Titu bore from birth which corresponds to the entry and exit of the
fatal bullet, unless one posited some sort of complex preknowledge or fore-
shadowing of Suresh's murder and Suresh's entry into Titu, or chance coin-
cidence. If Titu was born in December 1983, as his father told me, he was
born 4 months after the death of S ~ r e s hUnaware
.~ of the uncertainty about
the interval, Titu and Suresh's families and the Indian press have assumed
that this is a simple case of reincarnation.
Prior to their meeting in April 1987 the two families had not known each
other, as evidenced by the Verme party going initially to the wrong Bad.
However, we cannot rule out the possibility of Titu's parents hearing about
the murder. Nardev Singh, a man from the village of Bad, was a friend of
Suresh's. Titu's mother thought Suresh might have known some advocates
who are related to them. While Titu's father did not recall hearing of Sur-
esh's murder, he commonly reads the local newspapers. I checked one of the
papers he often reads and found it carried stories about Suresh's murder for
3 days running after Suresh's death. However, the papers did not include a
list of Suresh's next of kin, and only included the information contained in
items 2, 11, 13, 15 and 27 of Table 3. It is highly unlikely that the slight
acquaintances of Suresh's who lived in his village knew the rest of the
information Titu gave. Moreover, cryptomnesia would not explain the spec-
ificity of the correspondence of the two birthmarks, noted at Titu's birth, to
the entry and exit sites of the bullet that claimed Suresh's life.
172 A. Mills
Discussion
I have presented the data from 3 cases in some detail to assist the reader to
make his or her own evaluation of the nature of the evidence. I draw on the
experience of studying the additional cases in assessing the evidence for
reincarnation or alternate interpretations of cases. Table 4 compares the 10
cases under discussion with the larger body of cases in India studied by
Stevenson on a number of different features. The directions in my smaller
sample cannot be expected to be as accurate as in a larger sample. Eventu-
ally the cases I have studied will be included in the files at the Division of
Personality Studies and used for further analysis.
The question is whether the cases represent evidence that something
paranormal is taking place or whether the cases are the result of conscious
deceit (fraud), or unconscious self-deception and/or cultural construction.
Infrequent cases of deception and self-deception have been reported by
Stevenson, Pasricha and Samararatne (1988).
The Accuracy of the Information: The Evidence for Conscious Deceit

Before undertaking this investigation in India, I was prepared to find that
some, perhaps all, of the cases I would investigate would be hoaxes perpe-
trated for any number of reasons by the participants, such as a desire of the
child and/or its family to identify with a higher caste. This was my first
experience in a caste society. The investigations did not substantiate these
suppositions.
As Table 4 shows, in 3 of the 10 cases studied the subject was born into
humbler circumstances (called Demotion in Table 4) or lower caste than the
previous personality. Three of the cases showed no substantial caste or
socioeconomic difference (called No Change in Table 4), while in 4 of the
cases the child was born in a higher caste than the previous personality
(called Promotion in Table 4). In Stevenson's Indian sample for which the
relevant analysis has been made, one-third of the cases in which there was
promotion or demotion recall worse material conditions, while two-thirds
recall better conditions (1987, p. 215). Analysis of social status change for
the larger body of cases from India will be useful, as well as its relationship to
whether the previous personality was known or unknown.
In one of the cases in which the child was from a humbler caste, I enter-
tained some question about motive because discrepant accounts of one
important event suggested that two informants were misrepresenting the
event, or one very elderly informant had incorrectly remembered it. In
December 1989 I was able to gather further data on this complex case. I am
now confident that this is not a case of conscious deceit, but a case in which
there is unconscious construction on a larger scale than in the other cases I
have studied. I hope to do justice to the complexity of the case in a separate
re~ort.~
TABLE 4
Comparisons of features of cases of the reincarnation type in Stevenson's
sample from India and in Mills' replication study
Sex of Subject Percent Solved Cases
Mills 60% male

N = 10
Stevenson 64% male
N = 271'
Related Acquainted Unknown
Mills
Stevenson
Social Status Comparison
Promotion Demotion No Change
Mills
Stevenson
Violent Mode of Death Recalls Mode of Death Phobia Related

(Solved Cases) (Solved Cases) to Death
Mills
Stevenson 53%
N = 164'
- -
' (Cook, Pasricha, Samararatne, U Win Maung, & Stevenson, 1983).

(Pasricha, 1978).
Consistency and Accuracy of Statements. In the other cases, I noted some

minor discrepancies in the different eyewitness accounts of meetings and
recognitions depending on what the person had happened to actually hear. I
also noted that one informant attributed a statement to a subject which
incorporated information learned only after meeting the previous personal-
ity's family, and some tendency to accept as evidence statements made after
an obvious information flow had occurred. However, I found no indication
that the witnesses had fabricated the information itself.
Indeed, like Yuille and Cutshall (1986), I found that cross-referencing
numerous independent accounts indicated the testimony was generally
consistent and accurate. Like Freeman, Romney and Freeman (1987), I
found that informants who had witnessed a single meeting were better able
174 A. Mills
to provide a clear picture of that single event than people who had witnessed
numerous meetings, whose reportage tended to blend information about the
discrete meetings into a composite description. With the exception noted
above, the various accounts were consistent rather than contradictory.
I found that minor inaccuracies sometimes occurred in estimations of the
child's age when he or she said particular things, particularly if there had
been a considerable lapse of time since the events took place. Table 1
records some of the differences in estimates of the age at which Reena said
or did certain things. The inability to pinpoint the correct chronology is
particularly significant in the (relatively rare) instances when parents are not
sure if an event took place before or after the case was solved, at which time
the child and his or her family learned additional information about the
previous personality. The implicit assumption that the cases are examples of
reincarnation raises the question of unconscious self-deception.
The Evidence for Unconscious Self-Deception

The category of unconscious self-deception, as I see it, includes several
alternative explanations: imposition or adoption of an alternate personality
in response to serious pathology in the family, analogous to Multiple Per-
sonality Disorder; the adoption of an alternate identity without serious
pathology; or misdiagnosis of normal fantasy on the part of the child in
conformity with the culturally accepted category of reincarnation. When the
previous personality was unknown to the child and his or her family before
the case was "solved," these latter two explanations rest on the assumption
that the discovery of someone that fits the subject's description is a question
of coincidence and cultural construction.
Unconscious Construction Hypothesis I: Adoption of an Alternate Personal-
ity in Response to Complex Family Dynamics. Krippner (1987) has noted
the similarities of some Brazilian subjects in cases said to be of the reincar-
nation type with North American persons suffering from dissociative ten-
dencies. In Brazil, where the concept of reincarnation has been incorporated
into spiritism, intrusive or alternate personalities are diagnosed by some
practitioners as past-life personalities which the individual has not accepted
or incorporated. (This differs from the cases, also reported in Brazil, in
which children appear to remember previous lives without manifesting any
pathology.) One may ask if cases reputed to be of reincarnation are, in fact,
instances of the adoption of an alternate personality for reasons analogous
to the etiology of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Diagnosis of cases
of this latter phenomena have been increasing in Western countries over the
past half century (cf. Coons, Bowman, & Milstein, 1988; Greaves, 1980).
Kenny ( 1986) sees MPD as a metaphor for American culture, analogous to
cases diagnosed as spirit possession in other cultures (Kenny, 1981).
In cases of Multiple Personality Disorder the individual at times manifests
one or more separate and quite different personalities, about which the main
or presenting personality has no conscious memory. A precipitating factor
in the etiology of Multiple Personality Disorder appears to be a splitting of
the personality in response to childhood abuse (DSM-111-R, 1986). In some
instances the split in personality begins in childhood, and may be enacted as
an imaginary companion who has the ability to deal with distressing situa-
tions in a way the primary personality cannot (Congdon, Hain, & Steven-
son, 1961; Hilgard, 1977).
None of the cases of children said to have past-life memories which I
investigated appeared to fit within the category of Multiple Personality
Disorder. I found no evidence of pathology on the part of the subject or their
families. Despite the anomaly of the subject's conviction that he or she was
and still is someone else and, in some instances, his or her precocity, all the
subjects seemed to be normal, integrated individuals. There was no evidence
that they had adopted the conviction that they belonged to another family
because they were covertly or overtly rejected by their parents or other
family members, or had formed a defensive personality to cope with dis-
turbing material or abuse as in Multiple Personality Disorder.
Indeed, one of the most salient features of the cases was the consistency of
the apparent past-life and present-life personality. The children did not
manifest two separate personalities. Although recollections of apparent past
lives sometimes caused some of the children to become pensive, they con-
sistently manifested a single personality without amnesia for any segments
of that personality. The distinctive features of the personality typically were
manifest before the case was solved, and the child and his or her family had
an information about the nature of the previous personality. In the 3 cases I
have examined in which the subject has grown past the stage of consciously
identifying with a particular deceased individual, the child's personality
remains consistent with that exhibited earlier.
However, further questioning of the parents indicated that they tended to
give preference to their child with past-life memories because of the distress
the child experienced in believing that they belonged simultaneously in two
different locations and with two different families. This raises the hypothesis
that children may construct a previous-life identity in order to gain special
attention, in the absence of serious pathology.
Unconscious Construction Hypothesis II: Construction of a Previous Life to

Gain Attention. The hypothesis that children unconsciously develop what
are interpreted as past-life memories seems to me to be counterindicated by
four factors: (1) it presumes that a very young child is aware that indicating a
past-life identity would give it positive attention; (2) it presumes that a child
gets only positive reinforcement for claiming to remember previous lives;
(3) it presumes that the distress the child feels at separation from the appar-
ent past-life family is feigned; and (4) it does not account for the child's
apparently accurate knowledge of people and places about which the child
176 A. Mills
the child is not getting adequate attention. I found no indication that the
children were motivated by a need for compensatory attention.
I found that there was considerable variation in whether the child's case
had received notoriety, and in fact brought the child public attention.
Reena's case was never made public or published in any journals. Ashok
Kumar has had other enquiries about his case but I am not aware that it has
even been described in the Indian Press. Titu's case has been reported in at
least three magazines in India, and has entered the public domain in Agra.
Uma Verrne reported that an Indian film company is considering making it
into a movie. The reader will have to decide for him or herself whether
Titu's identification is based on such press coverage.
If a young child thought that claiming to remember a previous life would
gain additional solicitude from his or her parents, I doubt that a child would
find it worth the trouble to try to maintain an alternate identity on the basis
of the parents' response. The parents of the subjects I investigated could not
be accused of desiring their child to have past-life memories or encouraging
their expression. In all 10 cases, the families found it distressing to have a
child claim to belong to another family and cry to be taken to that family.
They wanted their child to relate to them as the parents. In addition, some of
the parents were upset at finding they had a child who spoke from what was
apparently a remembered past life because they thought children with past-
life memories have died prematurely of violent causes and returned quickly
to finish the unfinished business of the truncated life, after which they will
again die.5
In 8 out of the 10 cases, the fear of losing the child to premature death or
to the relatives of the past incarnation prompted the parents to take mea-
sures to make the child forget and/or cease speaking from the point of view
of a past life (Reena and Titu were the exceptions). These measures included
scolding, beating or cuffing the child, turning the child counterclockwise on
a grinding stone in the hope of making the child forget, and having a pandit
or priest recite mantras "to erase the past-life memories from the child's
brain." While the parents hoped these measures would be effective and felt
some relief in performing them, most parents found them initially ineffec-
tual in causing the desired amnesia. In the cases in which the child is now
over 9 years old, pare~tsfound that the child's memories faded when he or
she became about 7 years old (and sometimes attributed this relief to the
suppression measures administered much earlier).
Unconscious Construction Hypothesis 111: The Phenomenon of Children

Who Appear to Remember Previous Lives as Artifact of Cultural Construc-
tion of Natural Childhood Fantasy. If the phenomenon is not, as I conclude,
the artifact of the great or minor pathological imposition of another person-
ality, one may ask if it is the result of parents' interpretation of their child's
natural fantasies as past-life recollections. Watkins and Watkins (1 986) re-
port that adults under hypnosis can adopt a convincing personality separate
from their usual presenting personality. Stevenson (1987) notes that hyp-
notically induced "past-life regressions" can often be demonstrated to be the
result of fantasy because they do not accord with established historic fact.
This indicates that the intensity and conviction with which a child claims to
be someone else does not indicate that this is necessarily the case.
This raises the question of whether parents create the phenomenon by
labeling the child's statements and behavior as an example of reincarnation.
Having provided the child with the mental rubric of past-life recall, does the
child elaborate more details, and come, with the parents, to believe implic-
itly in the fantasy creation, which the parents unconsciuosly bolster by
acceptance of it as a valid past-life recollection? Psychologists (Festinger,
1957) and anthropologists (Fiske & Shweder, 1986; Shweder, 1980) have
made telling studies of the impact of cultural expectation on the evaluation
of ambiguous phenomena. Anthropologists and psychiatrists (cf. Angel &
Thoits, 1987; Hughes, 1985; Kleinman, 1980; Obeyesekere, 1981; Torrey,
1986; Waxler, 1979, inter alia) have pointed out that non-Western peoples
use different explanatory models which affect diagnosis and prognosis of
symptomatology. This raises the question of whether, or to what extent,
cases of the reincarnation type are a culture-bound syndrome.
There is no doubt that cultural interpretation played an important part in
the development of the various stages of the cases I studied. These stages are
the initial diagnosis of the case, the reaction to the case, and the search for
and identification of a corresponding previous personality, the "recogni-
tions" of people and places from the previous personality's setting, and the
interpretation of further statements by the child.
Diagnosis: Typically, after an initial period when the young child's state-
ments were given little importance, the child's continued revelations were
I
interpreted by the parents as relating to a past life. A prior belief in reincar-
nation certainly facilitated the parents' interpretation of their child's anom-
alous statements in terms of reincarnation. For example, Reena's mother
is unlikely to have interpreted Reena's enunciation of the word "groom"
and lying down and holding her breath as an attempt to communicate
about a previous life in the absence of believing previous life memories to be
possible.
Reaction to the case: Even when the parents were distressed to think that
their child was remembering a past life, and tried to stop the child from
speaking in these terms, this interpretation provided a framework for inter-
preting further action and statements. In some cases I investigated (although
none of the 3 presented here), the parents did a very careful job of eliciting
further information from the child so that they could trace the previous
personality, motivated by a desire to satisfy the child with some information
that would assuage its crying to go to the former home as well as by curios-
ity. In these situations the parents often began to assume aspects of the
projected previous personality. Even when the parents tried to ignore the
178 A. Mills
talking about a past life manifests in their verbiage. For example, parents
made no distinction in pronouns in referring to the child or the presumed
previous personality, making statements like, "He remembers his home and
brothers."
It is likely that providing the conceptual framework of reincarnation
encourages the child to continue to manifest more apparent past-life recol-
lections or identity (and that not providing such a framework inhibits the
continuation of this phenomenon in cultures which do not believe in rein-
carnation).
Solving of the case: In a culture which did not employ the category of
past-life recall, little effort would be made to solve such cases. If Reena was a
Rachel in Kansas, her mother would have been unlikely to recall the man
her 3-year-old said was her husband. If Titu was Tom in Chicago, his
brother would be unlikely to seek out the radio shop Tom claimed to own.
In North America an Ashok Kumar would be unlikely to get his brother to
set off to find the town or village the 5-year-old said he was from.
Recognitions: The interpretation of the "recognitions" is an area where
the importance of culturally constituted meanings is most evident. I did not
witness any of the initial "recognitions," but it became apparent in hearing
them described, that the participants were seldom concerned with, or exact-
ing about, standards of evidence for paranormality. It is difficult to rule out
the possibility that the child was given subtle (or even not so subtle) hints
about who was supposed to be whom. In one instance (see p. 155), Ashok
Kumar was explicitly prompted to recognize someone he did not initially.
The definition of recognition used may vary. In India, Reena's retiring and
covering her head with a cloth upon meeting Gompti Devi's mother-in-law
was accepted as clear evidence of recognition. In North America it would
not. In other words there are no universal cross-cultural signs of recognition.
However, I do not mean to imply that all "recognitions" are worthless as
evidence of paranormal phenomena. For example, there do not appear to
have been any initial clues provided for Ashok Kumar's initial spontaneous
recognition of Kishen Behari's mother.
Interpretation of further statements by the child: Once the case has been
solved, information gained through normal means may be interpreted as
further validation of paranormal knowledge by the participants. I have
included the description Ashok Kumar gave of the cause of death as we left
Bandha on his third visit, as an example of such a statement. Ashok Kumar
had not described the mode of death before going to Bandha. The informa-
tion corresponded to what we were told there. While it is possible that being
in the place where the events took place stimulated his memory, one cannot
rule out the possibility that Ashok Kumar had incorporated information he
or his relatives had learned and retold in his hearing. Further, his mother
had come to believe that Ashok Kumar's depiction of limping to his new
home meant that the previous personality had died with an impaired leg.
This presumption was confirmed by one informant but denied by others.
Ashok Kumar's mother gave numerous examples of her acceptance of her
son as a reincarnation case, saying to him as we approached Bandha, "Tell
your wife to give us water when we arrive," and so on. This does not, of
course, detract from the evidence provided by the body of statements that
were made before Ashok Kumar went to Bandha.
The strongest evidence for a paranormal process occurs in those cases in
which the child and his family had no knowledge of the previous personality
before they met. Half of the cases I studied fit into that category. However, it
is often difficult to rule out the possibility that the subject or his or her
family could have learned something about the previous personality and
then forgotten that they knew it. As Table 4 shows, the 10 cases I studied do
I not represent the full variation of contact in Stevenson's larger Indian sam-
ple. None of the 10 cases included subjects who were related to the previous
personality. The 3 cases described demonstrate a considerable range in the
possibility of the child having learned some information through normal
means about the previous personality. The case of Reena represents the
greatest amount of contact; her parents were acquainted with the husband of
the previous personality. I have coded the case of Titu as unknown, al-
though there was contact between an acquaintance of Suresh and Titu's
father. In the case of Ashok Kumar there was no prior contacte6
However, even in Reena's case, neither the colleague relationship between
Shyam Babu Yadev and Kripa Shanker Kulshreshtha which occasioned the
latter's awareness that Shyam Babu's wife had died, nor their living in the
same general neighborhood accounts for the child, from the time she was
first able to communicate, indicating that she had a husband and had died,
or the intensity of her phobia of the cremation ground and of hypodermic
needles. Shyam Babu's alacrity in remarrying 3 months after Gompti Devi's
death contravenes the usual Hindu 1-year mourning period, and indicates
his willingness to forget his past loss. Neither he nor his second wife could
legitimately be suspected of willingly transmitting the information to Reena.
The Kulshreshtha family had nothing to gain by establishing a link between
their daughter and a dark complexioned wife of a backward caste colleague
of her father's.
On a continuum from most to least contact, Titu's case falls towards the
end of no contact. The two families did not know of each other, although
Titu's father may have read of the murder or heard about it from an ac-
quaintance of Suresh's who lives in Titu's village and forgotten it. Nonethe-
less it is difficult to explain why Titu would identify as the owner of Suresh
Radio on the basis of these possible sources of communication. If a motive
could be found, it would not explain the correspondence of Titu's birth-
marks to bullet entry and exit site on the Suresh.
It has been suggested that in these instances it is mere coincidence that a
person meeting the child's description actually exists. However, it exceeds
the bounds of credibility to imagine that it is mere coincidence that there
existed a man in a village of Bandha with a wife and five children who had
180 A. Mills
been beaten by the police, as Ashok Kumar had said before going to the
village; and that Ashok Kumar would insist on going to that village, be able
to lead the way and once there recognize Kishen Behari's house and mother.
In this case as in others, the spontaneity and familiarity with which the
subject relates to the relatives of the previous personality belies prompting
or molding of the child's behavior to fit any preconceived mold.
If some paranormal means of attaining the knowledge seems indicated,
one must ask whether extrasensory perception offers a more compelling
explanation than the reincarnation hypothesis. Reena's demonstration of
extrasensory perception about four events suggests this alternative paranor-
mal hypothesis.
There is evidence that Western children (as well as adults) sometimes
seem to know and articulate others' thoughts without having been told them
(Rhine, 196 1). Children exhibit this property most often with a parent, that
is, someone he or she knows intimately. Spontaneous telepathic impressions
in adults are also typically between relatives (Stevenson, 1970). In Reena's
case her parents knew something about the existence of a former wife of
Shyam Babu Yadev. In Titu's case his father may have read or heard of the
murder of Suresh Verme. However, in both these cases the information does
not seem important enough or salient enough to the parent to explain the
child's attachment to this particular person. It seems unlikely that the child
would pick up the information from the unknown deceased individual's
relatives. In Ashok Kumar's case the extrasensory perception hypothesis
would rest on the presumption that Ashok Kumar was picking up on the
thoughts of Kishen Behari's relatives in Bandha, whom he and his parents
did not know existed.
Further, if some children can accurately pick up information contained in
other's minds it would not account for the child's striking identification with
one particular person. The ESP hypothesis would seem more credible if
these children could accurately relate facts about a number of individuals
unknown to them.7 Three factors counterindicate the extrasensory percep-
tion interpretation. First, the specificity of information given by children in
cases of the reincarnation type exceeds that in spontaneous childhood ESP.
Second, in all the cases the target person with whom the child seems to be in
extrasensory contact is a deceased previous personality. Third, extrasensory
perception per se does not typically entail strong identification with or as the
target person. The phenomena suggest that the consciousness of the de-
ceased person at the time of his or her death has become partially accessible
to the child.
Conclusion
My examination of 10 cases of children who identified themselves as a
deceased individual in India, 3 of which are described above, indicates that
an independent investigator, using Stevenson's methods of investigation,
finds comparable results. Some aspects of some of these cases cannot be
explained by normal means. I found no evidence that the cases I studied are
the result of fraud or fantasy or could be explained on the basis of projection
or assumption of an alternate identity in response to complex family dy-
namics. While the cultural acceptance of the concept of reincarnation and
the category of children remembering a past life influenced the parents'
interpretation of the child's behavior, it cannot be credited with causing all
aspects of its occurrence, such as the high degree of accuracy of the state-
ments these children make about an actual deceased person when that
person is unknown to them and their relatives. The alternate normal expla-
nations rest on the presumption that the existence of a previous personality
fitting the child's description is a product of coincidence. The consistency
and similarity of the child's personality with the personality reported for the
previous personality is also significant. In the cases where there are striking
birthmarks on the subject which relate to wounds on the previous personal-
ity or phobias related to the mode of death, the possibility of coincidence
diminishes even further.
Like Stevenson I conclude that while none of the cases I studied (or the 3
cases cited) offer incontrovertible proof of reincarnation or some related
paranormal process, they are part of the growing body of cases for which
normal explanations do not seem to do justice to the data. The implications
of these cases for understanding human psychology are sufficiently major to
warrant further careful studies of such cases. We should be beware of the
tendency to discount the evidence these cases present because the concepts
of paranormal phenomena in general and reincarnation in particular are not
a part of the Western scientific cultural construction. This replication study
indicates that there is enough data inexplicable by normal means to warrant
further investigation of children who claim to remember previous lives, and
to suggest that such cases offer evidence of the survival of some element of
the human personality after death.
Further studies of cases in India, should, whenever possible, concentrate
on cases which offer the most telling evidence about whether some paranor-
mal feature is involved. These are cases in which the child and his family did
not know the previous personality and cases which are as yet unsolved, or in
which a written record has been made of the child's statements before
verification of the existence of such a person is made.
Further studies are indicated to further refine Stevenson's work on the
interaction of specific cultural beliefs and the parameters of cases. I would
recommend studying imaginative childhood identities of Western children
to assess the similarity of what is considered "natural fantasy" in Western
children to the alternate identities of children said to remember past lives in
cultures that believe in the concept of reincarnation.
Endnotes
' I am following Stevenson's usage of the term "previous personality" to refer to the deceased
person of whom the child speaks.
182 A. Mills
* The subject recalls the murder of the previous personality. The alleged murderer and his
family identified me and my assistants as undercover agents seeking information for the murder
trial, and they threatened the child, his relatives, and the villagers with dire consequences if they
should talk about the case. In addition, we were not able to meet the mother or father of the
child, since they were (or were said to be) absent from the village on our repeated visits. For less
dramatic reasons we were sometimes unable to find all the witnesses I wanted to interview in
other cases as well.
The questions raised by this case show the importance of obtaining records wherever
possible of birth and death dates. Unfortunately, births and deaths often go unrecorded in India.
The interval between the death of the previous personality and the birth of the subject in most
cases studied by Stevenson is greater than 9 months, but there are a number of cases in which
the subject was conceived before the previous personality's death (Stevenson, 1986, 1987).
Further enquiries regarding the registration of Titu's birthdate have not yet settled the question,
but indicate that the person under whose name Shanti Devi was admitted may be fictitious.
In the one case (the one in which I found accounts to be seriously inconsistent), the child's
parents were convinced of the validity of the case, whereas the previous personality's father
(who had not witnessed any meetings) was not. His reservations were based on hearing that the
subject had called both the previous personality's uncle and brothers as uncles, and a sense that
the interval between his daughter's death and the birth of the subject (7 years) was too long.
Other people attributed his lack of endorsement of the case to be the result of reluctance to
believe that his daughter would return in the businessman's class, as he is a Brahmin.
Stevenson ( 1974) reports a similar fear ainong the Tlingit that children who remember past
lives will live a short life. I have found that the Beaver, Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en native
children of British Columbia, Canada, with such past-life memories are prized and called
"special child" and are typically born to close relatives who are solaced by having a deeply
mourned relative return. In this context such children seldom bother their parents to take them
to an unknown and different home and set of relatives, although all three tribes diagnose the
crying or illness of preverbal children as caused by the baby's distress at not having some prized
object of the previous personality, or missing some of his or her associates (Mills, 1988).
In the case with the greatest prior contact of the 10 I investigated, the subject became a
frequent visitor to the home of the previous personality when about 2 years old, and made
statements about the previous personality after contact was established. In the 2 cases with the
least amount of contact in my sample, the subject and his relatives were unaware of the
existence of the previous personality, who lived in another village, and the subject has not
visited the village or home of the previous personality, although the relatives of the previous
personality have visited the child at his or her home.
'Stevenson ( 1987) reports that intermediate or additional past lives are recalled by subjects of
cases of the reincarnation type infrequently, and are usually unverifiable. One of the subjects in
my sample claimed to recall one, unverified intermediate life.
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Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 185-200, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
Searching for "Signatures" in Anomalous Human-Machine

Interaction Data: A Neural Network Approach*
D EAN I . R A D I N ~
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08.544
Abstract-An artificial neural network was used to explore whether unique

"signatures" could be found in data collected in experiments studying the
effect of intention on the statistical behavior of random number generators.
Results showed that a network trained with a back-propagation technique
was able to learn to associate 32 different individuals with the data they
generated, then successfully transfer that knowledge to new data. It is rec-
ommended that similar experiments studying anomalous human-machine
interactions should attempt to identify person-specific patterns in data in
addition to measuring the magnitude of effects; parallel processing analysis
techniques are also recommended.
Introduction
One of the most conspicuous and frustrating aspects of the study of human
behavior is the fact that people are different. This distinctiveness allows us to
identify people based on properties such as fingerprints, handwriting, voice,
gait, DNA, personality, and so on (Weisburd, 1988). The importance of
individual differences has long been noted in psychological experiments
(Barlow & Hersen, 1984),thus it should not be surprising to find that such
differences have also been reported in parapsychological experiments (Babu,
1987; Berger, 1988; Jahn & Dunne, 1986, 1987; Jahn, Dunne, & Nelson,
1987; McConnell, 1989). The present study investigated the hypothesis of
individual differences, called "signatures," in human-machine interaction
data collected by the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
laboratory (Nelson, Dunne, & Jahn, 1984, 1986).
In the PEAR studies, individuals attempted to influence the output sta-
tistics of electronic random number generators (RNG) solely via mental
intention. In a typical RNG experiment conducted at PEAR, an RNG is set
to produce a series of 200 truly random bits at the press of a button; this is
called one trial. A person watches a digital display that shows how many
times the random samples matched an alternating "target" bit over the
course of 200 generated bits. By chance, one would expect an average of 100
* A version of this paper was presented at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific
Exploration, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, June 2-4, 1988.
Present address: Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Contel Technology Center, 15000 Confer-
+
ence Center Dr., P.O. Box 108 14, Chantilly, VA 22021-3808.

186 D. I. Radin
such matches, and under control conditions the distribution of trial scores
closely matches the theoretically expected binomial distribution (Nelson,
Dunne, & Jahn, 1986). When an individual is asked to aim for high num-
bers, he or she mentally tries to cause the RNG to produce trial scores
greater than 100. In a low aim condition, trial scores less than 100 are
intended; and in a control condition, no mental intention is applied. One
run consists of 50 aim high, 50 aim low, and 50 control trials. One series
consists of 50 such runs, which takes about five hours of data collection to
complete.
Aggregate experimental results to date reveal statistically significant cor-
respondences between the intentional "aim" and the shift of the RNG
output statistics (Jahn & Dunne, 1986, 1987; Jahn, Dunne, & Nelson,
1987). Meta-analysis of over 600 similar RNG experiments conducted by
some 67 other investigators indicates that the anomalous correlation is not
due to methodological shortcomings or undetected artifacts in the PEAR
RNG (Radin & Nelson, 1987; Radin & Nelson, in press).
One intriguing observation about this data (beyond the mere existence of
an anomalous correlation) is that individuals seem to perform in consis-
tently unique patterns. Nelson, Dunne and Jahn (1986) report that data
produced in one run often bears resemblance to data produced in other
runs, and such similarities appear to be unique to the individuals who
produced the data. However, other than providing face validity based upon
graphical representation of the data (Jahn & Dunne, 1987),some rudimen-
tary statistical analyses (Babu, 1987), and corroborating observations in
similar types of experiments (Berger, 1988; McConnell, 1989), a "signature"
effect has not been rigorously demonstrated. If such an effect were con-
firmed, it would suggest that experiments on human consciousness would
provide more useful and revealing information with single-subject designs
rather than conventional multisubject designs (cf. Barlow & Hersen, 1984).
To explore the idea of person-specific signatures in the PEAR RNG data,
I used a powerful computational technique that is proving to be exception-
ally adept at discovering weak patterns in noisy data. As described below in
more detail, the general term for this approach is neural network analysis,
and the specific training procedure used in this study is called back-propaga-
tion (Jones & Hoskins, 1987; Rumelhart, Hinton, & Williams, 1986). The
study involved training a network to associate given data with given individ-
uals, then observing whether the trained network could successfully identify
persons based upon data that the network had not "seen" before.
Neural Net works
New computational techniques and models, variously called neural net-
works, parallel distributed processing, connectionism, and so on, are at-
tracting wide interest within the disciplines of artificial intelligence, the
cognitive sciences, and the neurosciences. These models, analogous to bio-
logical neural networks, are rapidly advancing the theory and development
Anomalous human-machine interaction data 187
of self-organizing, adaptive machines as well as solving previously intract-

able problems in artificial intelligence (Materna, 1987; Shriver, 1988).
Neural networks are a form of parallel processing based upon research
about how the brain encodes and processes information. The power of these
networks rests upon the finding that when numerous elementary processing
units are richly interconnected under the right conditions, they can auto-
matically learn to associate arbitrarily complex inputs with arbitrarily com-
plex outputs. Properly configured, these networks can also implement self-
organizing associative memories, automatically derive statistical descrip-
tions of spatial and spatiotemporal data, and autonomously acquire
knowledge by observation.
An essential idea underlying neural networks may be illustrated by anal-
ogy with a bee hive. A hive is a complex, dynamic community with intelli-
gent organization and structure, created and supported by individually sim-
ple creatures. Instead of being controlled by a central, guiding intelligence, a
hive seems to be maintained by the hundreds of thousands of interactions
1 among bees. For another analogy, consider the collections of elementary

cells that l l ~ o ~ p e r ato
t ~form
" complex organic structures called organs.
In engineering terms, a neural network may be described as a "parallel
dynamic system with the topology of a directed graph [which] can carry out
information processing by means of its state response to continuous or
initial input" (Materna, 1987). Information processing involves interactions
among large numbers of artificial neurons. These neurons, called nodes or
units, have four main components, as illustrated in Figure 1:
~ input connections, through which the unit receives activation from other units, a
summation function that combines various input activations into a single activa-
I tion, an
Output
Fig. 1. Example of a typical node in a simulated neural network. A node may have an arbitrary
number of input connections, and any number of output connections (only one output is
shown).
188 D. I. Radin
output function that converts summation of input activation into output activa-
tion, and
output connections b y which a unit's output activation arrives as input activation
at other units in the system (Jones & Hoskins, 1987).
Such networks have been successfully taught to automatically recognize

human faces, read text, make medical diagnoses, balance objects, and so on,
without conventional algorithmic programming (Materna, 1987; Shriver,
1988; Widrotv & Winter, 1988). Because a more complete description of the
techniques and applications of neural networks is beyond the scope of this
paper, I will proceed by concentrating on the present implementation.'
Method
The Data
Data used in this study were originally collected at the PEAR laboratory
as part of their research on human-machine interactions with truly random
event generators2 The dataset consists of 87 series of data ("series" as de-
fined above), produced by 33 different individuals over approximately a
nine-year period. The data are in the form of run scores (average scores
obtained over 50 successive trials). A typical series is represented in the form
of 150 lines of data (one run score per line, and one set of 50 lines for each of
the tripolar intentions).
Other types of information were available from computer archive files,
including such items as whether the run was in "volitional" or "instructed"
mode, whether the RNG was in an "automatic" or "manual" condition,
and so on (Nelson, Dunne, & Jahn, 1984), but only run scores, intentional
aim direction, and operator identity numbers were used in the present
analysis.
Data Preparation
I chose a straightforward method of presenting data to a network, one that

required only six numbers to characterize an individual's performance over
one series. This had the advantage of simplicity, which was desirable in this
exploratory study, but the disadvantage of compressing nearly a million bits
of temporally collected data per person into only a few static summary
statistics.
Because the main purpose of this study was to see whether a network
could learn to identify an operator based solely upon his or her data, I
actually needed two datasets associated with each operator-one would be
used to train the network and the other would be used to see whether the
trained network could transfer its knowledge to new data. Thus, each series
(a total of 50 runs) was split in half, using the first half (25 runs in each of the
three aim conditions) as the training set and the second half (25 runs) as the
transfer set. This half-split method was used, rather than creating training
and transfer sets out of separate series, partially because only 20 individuals
had produced two or more series, but more importantly, because I specu-
lated that consistent human performance would be more evident within a
given series rather than between different series.3
Individual run scores were transformed into standard normal deviates
against chance expectation (i.e., Z scores), then for each series the following
six data items were generated to produce the training set: (1) an overall
(Stouffer) Z score for the first 25 runs under high aim intention, (2) the
average Z 2 of those 25 high aim runs,4 (3) a Stouffer Z for the first 25 runs
under low aim intention, (4) the average z2of those 25 runs, (5) the Stouffer
Z for the first 25 control intention runs, and (6) the average Z 2 of those runs.
For the transfer set, the same six data items were determined, except using
data for runs 26-50.
This procedure produced 87 items in the training set and 87 items in the
transfer set, representing data for 33 operators. To further simplify the
interpretation of the training-transfer test, I used only an operator's first
series, and only the first 32 operators (for reasons described below). This
resulted in two datasets, each consisting of 32 lines of data.
Control Datasets
If the transfer test showed that say, 50% of the operators were correctly
identified, the "signatures" results would be self-evident. But, if say, only
2-3% were identified, as expected given the very small magnitude effects
reported by the PEAR lab, then a statistical assessment would be necessary.
Therefore, two control datasets were generated to compare against the
transfer test results. First, a random dataset was generated by simulating the
PEAR experimental protocol with a pseudorandom number generator
(PRNG). The random dataset was created in five steps: (a) the PRNG was
used to generate one trial of 200 random bits, (b) this was repeated 50 times
to generate one run, (c) a Z score was determined from this run, (d) this was
repeated 25 times to simulate a half-series, and (e) steps a-d were repeated
32 times to simulate the 32 series used from the PEAR dataset.
Then a scrambled dataset was generated by using the original data, but
with operator numbers chosen uniformly at random, with replacement,
over the range 1-32. Note that I could not create a suitable scrambled
dataset by simply shifting operator codes by one, because this would guaran-
tee that at least half of the operators would be identified in that "scrambled"
data.5 The UNIX System VTM 48-bit multiplicative congruential PRNG,
called drand48, was used to provide pseudorandom numbers in the control
study. This generator has passed extensive first-order and higher-order ran-
domness tests (Radin, 1985; Roberts, 1982).
190 D. I. Radin
Description of Net work
The program used to implement the network was originally written in
Fortran, later recoded into C, then adapted and revised by the author for the
TM
present appli~ation.~ A Silicon Graphics IRIS 4D workstation was used to
run the program.
The network used for this study was based upon a three-layer model-
input, hidden, and output-as illustrated in Figure 2. There were six input
nodes, corresponding to the above six values associated with each operator;
between 10 and 30 "hidden" nodes (so-called because they are not directly
accessible to the outside world), depending on factors such as how fast the
network was to learn, how complex the inputs were, and so on; and 5 output
nodes, encoding 32 operator identities as binary codes.
For the present study, values applied to the six input nodes consisted of
the Stouffer Z scores and average Z 2 associated with each operator's data, as
mentioned above. The desired network output was the unique binary code
associated with each operator. As is customary in such networks, the inter-
connecting links between the input and hidden, and hidden and output
nodes were initially set to random values (typically using a uniform random
range between f 1.0).
Parallel Processing in the Net work
The following events occur in one simulated parallel processing cycle: (a)
The first line of the 32 line training dataset is read by the program, which
applies the six data values for the first operator to the input nodes. These
output nodes
input nodes
Fig. 2. Structure of the neural network used in this study. Links from the first input to first
hidden node, and first hidden to output node are shown to illustrate the connectivity of
the network. The actual network was fully interconnected between input and hidden,
and hidden and output layers. Here we see 12 hidden nodes; the networks tested used 10,
16, and 30 nodes.
Anomalous human-machine interaction data 19 1
values cause the input nodes to spread activation out along their links
towards the hidden layer in proportion to each link's strength or weight. (b)
The hidden nodes sum the activation received from the input nodes, de-
pending on the value of the connecting links, then, in accordance with an
activation function they send activation towards the output nodes. (c) The
output nodes sum the activation sent from the hidden nodes, ending the
"feed-forward" phase of this cycle.
Now a "teacher signal" comes into play: (d) An arbitrary but unique 5-bit
code (e.g., "001 1 1" identifies operator number 7) associated with the input
data is compared against the actual continuous-valued results residing at the
output nodes, generated from step (c). (e) The difference between the ob-
served activation from (c) and the desired "signal" from (d) is now propa-
gated backwards through the network, changing the values of the intercon-
necting links so as to minimize that error on the next pass if the same input
values were applied (thus the name of the learning rule, back propagation,
see the Appendix for the basic equation^).^ This ends one parallel proces-
sing cycle.
Now, (f) the same process is applied for the remaining 3 1 operators' data:
First a feed-forward phase, followed by back propagation of the error. Ap-
plying these 32 lines of input to the network is called one pass. With the
present network and form of the data, it typically takes between 1,000 to
3,000 such passes to train the network to perfectly associate the observed
data with the desired operator codes. (Some readers may find it surprising
that a network can learn to perfectly associate random-looking input data
with arbitrary output codes; this is one of the interesting properties of train-
able neural networks.)
It is important to note that an untrained network always starts with
random interconnection weights between nodes. The hidden nodes act as a
kind of mathematical space in which to compute the problem of associating
inputs with outputs, thus if we begin with say, 20 hidden nodes, we have a
topological flexibility roughly equivalent to a 20-dimensional space. With a
space this large, there are a vast number of "solutions" to the problem, and
it is likely that a new solution will be found each time the network is trained
from scratch. In other words, training the network once will not guarantee
the "best" solution, only an acceptable solution (i.e., the network does not
know that we want to transfer its knowledge to other data; it just solves the
association problem). Because I was interested in exploring the possibility of
knowledge transfer, the process described above in steps (a)-(f) was per-
formed repeatedly, forming a distribution of transfer results against which to
compare the random and scrambled dataset results.
Transfer Test
The transfer test consisted of 5 steps:
(a) The network was trained (from a random starting state) on the 32-line
192 D. I. Radin
per output node at the end of a pass. From experience this was determined
to take between 1,000 and 3,000 passes.
(b) The trained network was tested against the transfer dataset by sending
each of the 32 items in the transfer dataset through the net in one feed-for-
ward pass, then comparing the values obtained at the output nodes against
the desired values. The observed value at an output node was considered to
be 0 if the activation was less than 0.5, otherwise it was considered to be a 1.8
The number of correct bit-matches was then used as a measure of success for
the transfer test. For example, if all 5 bits of an operator code number were
identified correctly after passing that operator's data through the network,
the data-operator relationship learned by the network during the training
phase would have transferred perfectly (in informational terms, we could
think of the transfer test as having "transmitted" 5 bits of information). If 4
bits were correctly identified, this would constitute an 80% match (transmit-
ted 4 bits of information), and so on.
(c) The same process was conducted for the random dataset and the
scrambled dataset, producing for each of the three tests the number of
perfectly correct matches (515 bits correct) out of 32 operators, 4 out of 5
correct matches (out of 32 operators), and 3 out of 5 (out of 32 operators).
Thus, the score for a perfect transfer test would be 32 (all operators correctly
identified with 5 out of 5 bits correct).
(d) Steps a-c were repeated 100 or more times to form a distribution of
results for the transfer, random, and scrambled tests.
(e) The means of the distributions obtained in step d were compared with
a t-test.9 The null hypothesis is that there are no consistent patterns within
the data, so there is nothing that can be transferred, and thus there should be
no differences among the transfer, random, and scrambled dataset distribu-
tion means. The alternative hypothesis is that there is something consistent
in the data that is associated with each operator; that these associations can
be learned; and that these can be detected in independent data produced by
those same operators. These effects would manifest in the present case by
shifting the transfer distribution mean positive with respect to the random
and scrambled distribution means, and the random and scrambled means
should not differ significantly from one another. Thus, three t-tests were
planned in advance: Transfer vs. Random, (TR) Transfer vs. Scrambled
(TS), and Random vs. Scrambled (RS).
Results
In considering the results, it is important to note that the values at the
output nodes of these networks resemble Bernoulli trials with p = 0.5. For
example, we would expect to find approximately one operator correctly
identified by chance (say, one "hit") out of 32, or approximately 5 hits out
of 32 where 4 out of 5 bits were correctly identified, and so on. Actually, the
chance expected value at the (binary transformed) output nodes also de-
pends on the initial interconnection weights in the network, on the form of
the activation and learning rules, and on the input values. With these ca-
veats in mind, by rough approximation we would expect to see about one
operator completely identified by chance (i-e.,all five code bits correct), and
one completely missed (i.e., all five bits missed).
Table 1 shows results of tests using three network configurations. Each of
the simulations took about 6 hours to complete on a Silicon Graphics IRIS
4-D workstation. l o
Discussion
If the signatures hypothesis is true, it would manifest in this study by
making the number of correctly identified operators greater in the transfer
condition than in either the random or scrambled conditions. We would
expect to find significant differences between the transfer vs. random and
transfer vs. scrambled conditions, and a nonsignificant difference for the
random vs. scrambled condition. This is what the results show (Table I).
The two histograms in Figure 3 display the distributions for the "415 bits
identified" results.
Another way of illustrating transfer in this study is by examining the
difference between means of perfectly identified (515 bits) and perfectly
unident$ed (015 bits) operators for each of the three conditions. Under the
signatures hypothesis, we would expect to find more cases of 515 code bits
identified than 015 code bits identified in the transfer condition, but not in
the random or scrambled conditions. Because the 515 and 015 means within
the three conditions are not fully independent, the statistics shown in Table
2 are based on t-tests for differences between correlated pairs of means.
Figure 4 shows the separation between the distributions for the training-
transfer test.
Given these results, one may wonder-under the assumption that
within-person performance is reasonably consistent-whether repeatedly
presenting a network with multiple examples of the same operator's data
(i.e., from different experiments) would improve the transfer rate. Table 3
shows test results for correctly identified operators (515 code bits correct) in
a 20 hidden node network trained on three independent datasets for each of
nine people. (Nine persons in the PEAR database had completed three
separate series.)
Comparing results in Table 3 with those in Table 1 suggests that there
may be an advantage in presenting networks with repeated, independent
views of the same operators' data. More research is needed to determine
ways of training networks to recognize this data, as well as to select optimum
statistical parameters to use as inputs. In addition, even though the trans-
194 D. I. Radin
TABLE 1
Means, standard deviations, and t-tests for transfer, random, and scrambled tests, using
actual and random training-transfer data; all results are based
upon N = 100 training-transfer repetitions
10 Hidden Nodesa
Bit matches (#/5) 1 2
Transfer
Mean
SD
Random
Mean
SD
Scrambled
Mean
SD
16 Hidden Nodesd
Bit matches (#/5) 1 2
Transfer
Mean
SD
Random
Mean
SD
Scrambled
Mean
SD
30 Hidden Nodesd
Bit matches ( # / 5 ) 1 2
Transfer
Mean
SD
Random
Mean
SD
Scrambled
Mean
SD
t-tests
10 Hidden nodes
t (T-R)"
t (T-S)
t (R-S)
16 Hidden nodes
t (T-R)
t (T-S)
t(R-S)
30 Hidden nodes
t (T-R)
t (T-S)
t (R-S)
" Trained 4,000 passes.

The network identified 4 out of 5 operator code bits for an average of 6.02 operators out of
32.
'The network identified all 5 operator code bits for an average of 1.46 operators out of 32.
Trained 2,000 passes.
" All t-tests for differences between independent means, 198 degrees of freedom. Significant
results, one-tailed, are highlighted in bold for emphasis.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5
Number of operators identified out of 32
Fig. 3. Histogram for the number of times that four out of five operator code bits were correctly
identified, out of a total of 32 operators, using a 10 hidden node network. T4 refers to the
training-transfer test and R4 refers to the training-random test. Thus, in 100 independent
repetitions of the training-transfer test, the mean number of operators in which 80% of
the operator code was correctly identified was 6.02, whereas the equivalent mean in the
random test was 4.9 1. Compare these figures with 5.0, which is the number expected by
chance assuming that the output nodes are Bernoulli trials with p(hit) = .5.
solute magnitude was miniscule. Obviously, if the original "signal" (i.e.,

influence on an RNG output) were more robust, then the neural network
would be more likely to recognize a potential signature. Thus, research is
also needed on ways of statistically increasing the magnitude of these anom-
alous influences.
Conclusion
This study suggests that a neural network may learn to associate data
produced by a random number generator with the identity of individuals
who attempted to "mentally influence" the output statistics of the genera-
tor. Results of tests with different network configurations suggest that it may
TABLE 2
Paired t-tests (99 df) for differences between correlated means, for 5 vs. 0 correctly identified
operator code bits, in the training-transfer (T), training-random (R), and training-scrambled
(S) conditions; significant results are highlighted in bold
Paired t-tests
Hidden Nodes T5-TO R5-RO S5-SO

196 D. I. Radin
Number of o p e r a t o r s i d e n t i f i e d out of 3 2
Fig. 4. Histogram for five and zero operator code bits correctly identified, out of a possible 32
operators, for the training-transfer (TO & T5) condition, using a 10 hidden node net-
work. In other words, in 100 training-transfer test repetitions, the mean number of times
that zero operator code bits were identified was 0.61, whereas the mean number of times
that all five operator code bits were identified was 1.4. Results shown in Table 2 show
that this separation is seen only in the transfer datasets, and not in the random or
scrambled datasets.
be possible to develop experimental protocols that are better suited for

network analysis than protocols currently used to generate data in typical
random event generator experiments.
For example, consider an experiment requiring an operator to attempt to
simultaneously influence multiple RNGs. The multiple, parallel outputs of
TABLE 3
Means, standard deviations, and t-tests for transfer, random, and scrambled distributions;
N = 50 training-transfer repetitions of a 20 hidden node network, trained for 2,000 passes;
this network was presented with data from three independent series for each of nine
operators, for a total of 27 lines of input;" significant tests are emphasized in bold
515 Correct Matches
Transfer
Mean
SD
Random
Mean
SD
Scrambled
Mean
SD
t (T-R)
t (T-S)
t(R-S)
the RNGs would be fed into a network for analysis. With this form of
parallel data, plus additional parameters such as direction of intention (e.g.,
high aim or low aim), feedback presentation style, age, gender, environmen-
tal variables, and so on, a network may be able to learn to associate operator
identity with his or her data at a transfer rate approaching practical utility.
Trial-by-trial parallel feedback displayed to operators could be more inter-
esting than the typical display of numbers of hits, or linear graphs, and
instead provide graphical representations of multidimensional phase rela-
tionships among the outputs of the RNGs.
Such displays would have the advantage of conveying more information
to operators at a single glance, would allow more interesting forms of feed-
back (e.g., dynamically shifting coherent vs. chaotic shapes and colors), and
would allow experimental protocols in which shift of a theoretical mean of a
distribution would be secondary as compared to the relationships of means
of independent binomial distributions. It may be that phase relationships
are "easier" to influence than mean shifts because changes in phase do not
require pushing a device against its normal operating probabilities, that is,
different phase relationships among the outputs of independent random
generators can be achieved without shifting the individual distribution
means beyond chance expectation.
Endnotes
' For an introduction to the capabilities and theories of neural networks, see the special issue
of IEEE Computer, 21, 1988.
* I am indebted to Robert Jahn, Roger Nelson, and Brenda Dunne for providing a copy of this
dataset, which was retrieved from computer tape archives maintained by the PEAR laboratory.
Note that under the null hypothesis, it should not matter when or by whom the data was
collected, so the present method would offer no advantage in identifying "signatures."
In other words, V = (CZ 2 / N ) ,where N = 25.
I will allow the interested reader to figure out why this is so, with the hint that successive
operator codes in the training set are sequential binary numbers.
The program allows a wide variety of parameters to be set, including variables related to how
fast the network learns, how many nodes there are, the range for initial random weights used to
interconnect the nodes, and so on. I am indebted to Stephen Hanson and Robert Masterson for
their gracious assistance with this software. See the Appendix for the activation and learning
rule equations.
'The back-propagation method used here is an extension of the well-known generalized delta
rule (Rumelhart, Hinton, & Williams, 1986), allowing the use of non-euclidian error signals.
Hanson & Burr (1987) have shown that this method is particularly effective with noisy data.
198 D. I. Radin
In this network, output activation levels were continuous-valued numbers between 0 and 1.
'The variance in the transfer dataset comes from the randomness in the neural network's
initial state, whereas the variance in the random and scrambled datasets come from two sources:
randomness in the network and randomness in the pseudorandomly generated data. Thus, in
statistical terms, the t-test is conditional on the transfer dataset.
'O This computer runs at about 12.5 million instructions per second (MIPS), which suggests
why neural network analyses have only recently become practical.
'' It should be noted that the number of training passes, hidden nodes, training-transfer
repetitions, and so on, were chosen by experience with these networks rather than by algorith-
mic or formal criteria. This is because the state-of-the-art of neural networks remains more of an
art than a science.
References
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Research in parapsychology1986 (pp. 1-5). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
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behavior change (2nd ed.). New York: Pergamon Press.
Berger, R. E. (1988). In search of "psychic signatures" in random data. In D. Weiner & R.
Morris (Eds.), Research in parapsychology 1987 (pp. 81-85). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow
Press.
Hanson, S. J., & Burr, D. J. (1 987). Minkowski-R back-propagation: Learning in connectionist
models with non-euclidian error signals. To appear in Proceedings ofFirst IEEE Conference
on Neural Net works.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1986). On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with appli-
cation to anomalous phenomena. Foundations of Physics, 16, 72 1-772.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1987). Margins of reality. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Jahn, R. G., Dunne, B. J., & Nelson, R. D. (1987). Engineering anomalies research. Journal of
ScientiJic Exploration, 1, 2 1-50.
Jones, W. P., & Hoskins, J. (1987, October). Back-propagation: A generalized delta learning
rule. Byte, pp. 155- 162.
Materna, T. (1987, June). Neural networks enter high speed marketplace. Computer Technol-
ogy Review, pp. 1-30.
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3 18-362). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Appendix
This semilinear function used to calculate activation in the forward pass is
from Rumelhart, Hinton and Williams (1986, p. 329):
where
o is the output activation,
p is a pointer referring to the hidden or output layer of nodes,
w are the interconnection weights from input to hidden, or hidden to output
nodes,
i ranges over the number of input or hidden nodes, and
j ranges over the number of hidden or output nodes.
For the backwards pass, the back-propagation error (A) is computed for
output nodes as:
where
SGN is the sign of (tj - oj),
t is the teacher signal (the desired output),
o is the observed activation level at the output node,
and r is a real number (chosen as r = 3 for all network simulations reported
here).
Now A for hidden nodes is calculated as:
Nout
A, = C Ak*wtik)*h,*(l- h,),
k= l
where
Nout is the number of output nodes,
Ak is the activation on an output node,
w is the interconnection weights between hidden and output nodes, and
h is the activation on hidden node j.
We then modify the weights in the network according to the rules:
200 D. I. Radin
and
where
a controls the "inertia" of learning in the network,
t controls how fast the network learns,
t is the time or processing cycle number, and
activationi is the amount of activation on node i.
Note that weights are updated after each presentation of an input/output
pair, and the amount of change depends on how much the weights were
changed on the previous cycle (and the value of a).
Journal of ScientiJicExploration.Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 201-2 12, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
1 A Case of Severe Birth Defects Possibly Due to Cursing
Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry,

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908
Abstract-For centuries it was widely believed that a strong unpleasant

shock to a pregnant woman could cause birth defects in her baby. Medical
books and journals published numerous cases of this type up to the early
decades of the present century. The idea of "maternal impression" gradu-
ally lost ground during the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly because it
seemed to conflict with the facts of physiology. In cases of "maternal im-
pression," the pregnant mother was usually reported to have viewed some-
one with a shocking deformity that her baby was said to reproduce. It has
also been thought that cursing, verbally inflicted and without a visual stim-
ulus, could produce birth defects. Three cases of this type, one published by
a pediatrician in 1960, are briefly reviewed, and then a new case is reported.
In both of the modem cases, the commonly recognized etiological factors
in birth defects could not be identified.
Children who claim to remember previous lives are often born with birth-
marks and birth defects that correspond to wounds or other marks on a
person whose life the child later remembers. In many cases the evidence of
such correspondence depends on the memories of informants who saw the
deceased person's body; but in some 30 cases, medical documents, usually
postmortem reports, have provided the stronger evidence of a contempora-
neously written record of the wounds. I have reported a few cases of this type
(Stevenson, 196611974) and am preparing to publish reports of a much
larger number of cases with fuller documentation, including photographs of
the birthmarks and birth defects. The birthmarks and birth defects occur-
ring in these cases are not, for the most part, of the commonly recognized
types; and it has been possible to exclude in most cases all the recognized
A report of the case here presented will be included in a work now in progress that will
describe a large number of cases suggestive of reincarnation the subjects of which had birth-
marks and birth defects possibly deriving from previous lives they remembered. .4 much
abbreviated report of the case has been published elsewhere (Stevenson, 1985). I am publishing
the present report in the hope of stimulating discussion of this case (and similar other ones) and
of their best interpretation.
I wish to thank Godwin Samararatne and Tissa Jayawardene for assistance as interpreters in
the study of the case and for conducting some additional interviews. Ms. Emily W. Cook gave
helpful suggestions for the improvement of the paper. The comments of four reviewers assisted
me in adapting the case report for this journal.
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Ian Stevenson, M.D., Box
152, Health Sciences Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908.
202 I. Stevenson
physical causes of birthmarks and birth defects, such as genetic factors and
illness of the mother during her pregnancy.
In many cases of the type just mentioned the child's mother had seen the
dead body of the person her child later claimed to have been. In others she
had not seen the body, but had heard descriptions of its wounds. Under
these circumstances it could be supposed that images in her mind of the
dead person's wounds had somehow affected the body of her child and
produced in it birthmarks or birth defects corresponding to the images in the
mother's mind and thus also to the dead person's wounds. As I continued
my investigations of these cases I learned that the hypothesis of maternal
impression-to give the process I have just described its usual name in
English-was a serious rival to other interpretations of these cases, including
reincarnation.
The principal case reported in this paper illustrates the competition be-
tween the hypothesis of maternal impression and that of reincarnation, if we
decide from the evidence that some paranormal process seems to have been
involved. I hope to facilitate appraisal sf the case report by first giving a brief
account of the hypothesis of maternal impression and summaries of 3 pub-
lished cases in which cursing provided the source of the possibly causative
imagery in the mind of a pregnant woman who gave birth to a defec-
tive child.
The Concept of Maternal Impression as a Cause of Birth Defects
It was widely believed for centuries-by laypeople and physicians alike-

that strong mental impressions in a pregnant woman could cause birth
defects (or birthmarks) in the baby born of her pregnancy. Authors of re-
ports of such cases frequently drew attention to close correspondences of site
and appearance between some shocking deformity seen by the pregnant
woman and the birth defect of her later-born child. For example, if the sight
of a man with deformed feet had frightened a pregnant woman, her baby's
congenitally deformed feet would be attributed to this fright (Montgomery,
1857, pp. 35-36). The medical literature of the 18th and 19th centuries
contained numerous reports of cases of this kind.
Even in the 18th century voices of skepticism, such as that of the famous
obstetrician William Hunter,' were heard. These, however, did not stop the
publication of reports of such cases in medical journals. In 1890 Dabney
reviewed and analyzed 90 cases of maternal impression, reports of which
had been published between 1853 and 1886 (Dabney, 1890). Nevertheless,
by that time the hypothesis of maternal impression was steadily losing popu-
larity, and only sporadic reports of apparently exemplifying cases occurred
in the early years of the 20th century. By the middle of this century, author-
ities on teratology discounted and even derided the concept (Barrow, 197 1;
Warkany, 1959, 1971). Warkany (1959, p. 89) pointed out that the hypoth-
Birth defects from cursing? 203
esis of maternal impression lost credibility with advances in anatomy and
physiology during the 19th century. "It was known," he wrote, "that the
maternal and fetal circulations were separated. How could images be trans-
mitted through the placenta?"
One possible answer to this question is that the influence might be trans-
mitted through some paranormal process as yet not recognized, let alone
understood. A careful study of the published reports of cases of maternal
impression and the investigation of a few cases that have come under my
direct observation have convinced me that the hypothesis of maternal im-
pression deserves renewed attention. I do not expect any reader to agree with
my judgment on this matter until he or she has studied the extensive review
of reported cases that I have included in my mentioned forthcoming work.
This will provide summaries of about 50 cases in which a pregnant woman,
after seeing (or occasionally after hearing about) an unusual injury or defor-
mity, gave birth to a baby with birthmarks or birth defects corresponding
closely to the apparently stimulating injury or deformity that the woman
had seen or learned about.
Cursing as a Generator of Maternal Impressions
In the standard case of a birth defect attributed to a maternal impression
(as published in the 19th century and the first decades of this one), the
mother had nearly always been directly exposed to the sight of some shock-
ingly deformed person. However, a few cases have been reported in which
the mother was said to have imagined (and caused) a congenital deformity
in her child without any visual experience to guide her. In these cases the
mother-to-be would only have heard a description of wounds or defects
narrated by someone else who had seen them, such as her husband.
A subgroup of cases without direct visual stimulation of the woman's
mental imagery is that occurring with a curse. When one person curses
another, the cursing person evokes in the cursed one mental images of some
unpleasant and even fatal event that is to happen.
The medical literature on cursing is sparse. There is now widespread
skepticism in the West about the efficacy of cursing, and one is surprised to
find an occasional educated Western person who believes in its power
(Raine, 1977, p. 73). Reports of the effects of cursing, moreover, rarely
mention that the curse had specified a particular penalty that the cursed
person was to endure; he or she should suffer or die, but was usually not told
how (Burrell, 1963; Mathis, 1964). However, I have found 3 published
reports of cases in which the cursing person predicted birth defects in a child
of the person cursed. I shall summarize them next.
Readers may think that the first 2 of these cases deserve only the status of
legends because, although reports of them were published in the 19th cen-
tury, their origins lay much farther back. This means, however, that the
cursing occurred during a period when people believed in the power of
204 I. Stevenson
The birth defect in both these cases was that of hereditary brachydactyly,
which, by the time of the proband's life, had already afflicted in one case
nine generations of the family (Kellie, 1808), in the other six generations
(Mackinder, 1857). These cases occurred in different parts of England (Ux-
bridge and Gainsborough), but both were said to have begun, generations
earlier, in the cursing of a pregnant woman by her husband and for the same
offense. (Perhaps the families were distantly related and the same account
became transmitted in two lines of descent.) In each case, the husband of the
unfortunate woman had cultivated fruit trees with great solicitude, and,
when the time came to pluck the fruit, he had strictly forbidden anyone else
in his household to take the first fruit. The fruit nevertheless disappeared.
The enraged man then cursed the thief. In the earlier of these two accounts
the man "with dreadful rashness wished, that if she [his wife] was guilty, the
child which she was then with might be born without fingers" (Kellie, 1808,
p. 253). In the second case the angry man was said to have "cursed the thief,
and prayed, for so heinous an offence, that the fingers which touched the
apple might all be chopped off. His wife, enceinte, feared much . . . , but
dared not confess the crime . . . a child was born; but, sad to tell, the fingers
which its father had wished to be amputated had strangely forgotten to
grow" (Mackinder, 1857, p. 846).2
The next case known to me occurred in Australia and in modern times
(Turner, 1960). It is that of an infant with almost complete amelia that
followed a cursing of the baby's mother by her mother. The former, a
16-year-old Australian girl, had become illegitimately pregnant in the hope
of forcing her parents to allow her to marry a Maltese man of whom they
strongly disapproved. The girl's mother, instead of consenting to the mar-
riage, became angry, roundly cursed her daughter, and said that if she con-
tinued with the pregnancy the baby would be born "without arms and legs,
and blind" (p. 502). (The mother first cursed her daughter during the 5th or
6th week of the pregnancy.) Several persons witnessed the cursing, and the
mother repeated it every 2 or 3 weeks in letters to her daughter during the
remainder of the pregnancy. The pregnancy ran to term, and the daughter
was delivered of a gravely deformed male baby. Both the infant's legs were
absent, and of the right arm only the proximal half of the upper part was
present. The left arm was normal down to the hand, but it had only two
fingers. The infant seemed otherwise normal and was probably not blind. It
was cared for in the.hospita1of its birth for 6 months and then transferred to
a babies' home, where it died at the age of 7 months.
Dr. Elizabeth Turner (a pediatrician), who reported this case, found no
evidence that any of the commonly recognized etiological factors in birth
defects had occurred in it. Since Turner published her report before exces-
sive consumption of alcohol had been clearly identified as a factor in caus-
ing birth defects, I corresponded with her about this possibility. She assured
me that alcohol could not have been a causative agent in the case. (She
mentioned in her letter to me of October 27, 1978 that she had become
aware of the teratogenic effects of alcohol before other pediatricians had
published papers bringing this factor in birth defects to widespread atten-
tion.) So far as she could tell, the stress of the cursing by the pregnant
woman's mother was the only causative factor identified in the case. After
briefly reviewing some evidence from pharmacological experiments bearing
on the role of stress in causing reduction deformities of limbs, Turner con-
cluded her report by expressing the "hope that it may stimulate others with
experience of similar cases to document and record them" (p. 503).
Case Report
A research assistant of mine in Sri Lanka (Tissa Jayawardene) noticed in a

newspaper a photograph of a male infant, S.P., who had been born (on
August 13, 1980) without arms and with deformed legs. Knowing of my
interest in unusual birth defects, he went to the village where the baby lived
and photographed the baby himself, afterward sending me a photograph of
the baby, who was then 4 months old (see Figure 1). When I was next in Sri
Lanka (in October 1982), I went to the village of the baby's family, but
learned that he had died (of "some urinary trouble") in April 1982, at the
age of about 20 months. He was then just beginning to speak.
The photograph showed almost all that I could learn about the baby's
birth defects. There was complete absence of the arms. A finger nubbin was
visible at the left shoulder; I do not know whether there was one at the
corresponding site of the right shoulder. Both legs were morphologically
normal, but both feet were deformed and turned medially; plaster casts
(visible in the photograph) had been applied in the hope of correcting the
deformities. At the time of his death, the baby could crawl, but could not
walk well because of his deformed feet.
I inquired of the child's father whether he knew of anyone in his family or
circle of acquaintances who had lost his arms before dying.3 It turned out
that he did. The person in question was someone whom the father (with his
brother) had murdered in February 1974. The father then narrated the
following history, which I corroborated (in its essential features) from the
baby's mother, its uncle, and other villagers, particularly members of the
murdered man's family.
The murdered man, Y.S., was, at the time of his death, 25 years of age and
married. He had been in his village what the Sinhalese call a "chandiya," by
which they mean someone who is rough, tough, and given to bullying other
people. He had a record of violent behavior, as had other members of his
family. His older brother told me, en passant, that he (the informant) had
himself killed three men; and their father had died when he had nervously
dropped a bomb that he was preparing for use against his enemies in the
village. Y.S.'s older brother also told me that Y.S. had been "ruthless," and
he compared him to the German soldier Field Marshal Erich Rommel.
206 I. Stevenson
Flg. 1. S.P. at the age of 4 months. I'here is complete absence of both upper limbs. Both feet
have the defect known as tal~pesequlnovanas and plaster casts have been applied with a
view to correcting the dekrmities.
A quarrel over Y.S.'s dog, which had entered the house of one of his
adversaries and eaten a cooked curry, began with the wornenfolk and spread
to the Imnen. The baby"&Fdlher am-rd ern-tclz decrded to 11rrrsh w ~ t hk .9. f hey
arranged somehow for him to be made drunk with aIcohol and lured over to
their side of the village. They then cut off his arms arid legs with a sword.
Other villagers, angry at V.S., came, like the lesser seliators at Caesar's
murder, and inflicted additional wounds.
I obtained a copy of the postmodem examination of U.S.'s body. With
regard to both legs and the right arm, the report confirmed that the distal
portions of these limbs were alrnost fully severed from their proximal parts.
It described three deep wounds of the I-ight arm. However, although it
mentioned numerous other wounds including one of the left wrist, it did not
mention any wound that nearly severed the distal part of the left arm. The
principal murderer and his brother, as well as four members of Y.S.'s family
who had seen the body, all agreed that all the limbs had been nearly cut off
so that the distal parts remained dangling. Discounting the testimony of the
principal murderer and his brother, who were themselves drunk when they
killed Y.S., and that of one of Y.S.'s relatives (who may compliantly have
agreed with his mother), there remain the concordant statements on this
detail of three other members of Y.S.'s family whom I happened to inter-
view independently of each other. It is possible that, when the pathologist
described the left arm, he slipped and wrote "right" when he should have
written "left." It is also possible that my informants, remembering events of
8 and a half years earlier and aware of S.P.'s birth defects, harmonized their
memories to accord with the birth defects.
The principal murderer (S.P.'s father) and his brother (who had helped
him) were arrested, tried, and sentenced to 3 years in prison. The prison
permitted the murderer to have frequent day-long passes when he would
visit his wife, and they were therefore able to continue having children.
Y.S.'s death sorely affected his mother, and she believed that the punish-
ment imposed by the terrestrial court was insufficient retribution for her
son's murder. S.P.'s mother told me that Y.S.'s mother several times said to
her publicly: "For killing my son, you will have a deformed child." (Even
though the murderer's wife had not participated directly in the murder, the
wrath of Y.S.'s mother fell on the entire family.) Y.S.'s sister corroborated to
me that their mother had had the habit of cursing the murderer's family
whenever she went by their house; but she did not recall the specific detail of
her wishing the family to have a deformed child. Y.S.'s mother, whom I also
interviewed, denied that she had made such a specific curse against the
family. She said that she had merely called on the gods-Kataragama and
Vishnu-to punish the murderer in some way. (I do not believe she would
have admitted to me that she had cursed the mother, and I think that S.P.'s
mother was speaking the truth about the nature of the curse.)
Both the murder itself and the subsequent curse troubled the murderer's
wife. She recalled mentioning to her husband that Y.S. might be reborn as
their son, and when she became pregnant she feared that her baby might be
deformed. Then a daughter was born and was normal. The murderer's wife
relaxed, thinking that the curse had somehow been neutralized. She and her
husband were dismayed, therefore, but not entirely surprised, when her next
pregnancy ended in the birth of the badly deformed male infant, S.P.
Excluding Known Causes of Birth Defects

None of the ordinarily recognized causes of birth defects are identified in
this case. The parents were not related, at any rate closely; since they came
from the same village they might have had some remote common ancestor.
I inquired about other birth defects in the family and was told there were
none. (The several members of the family whom I saw-S.P.'s parents,
208 I. Stevenson
paternal uncle, and one sister-had no limb defects.) After my interviews I
felt dissatisfied with the completeness of the family history I had obtained,
and at my request Tissa Jayawardene returned to the village and inquired
about every member of the two families of S.P.'s parents with regard to their
having had birth defects. His informants were S.P.'s mother, one of his
paternal aunts, and the latter's husband. He drew genealogies to assure
completeness of the information. This survey included S.P.'s three siblings,
all 20 of his cousins, all eight of his uncles and aunts, and three of his
grandparents. Information could not be furnished about one grandparent,
presumably because she had died when the informants were quite young.
None of these persons suffered from any birth defect known to the infor-
mants. The only abnormality they recalled for any of these persons was
"mental weakness" in one of S.P.'s cousins.
S.P.'s mother told me that she had enjoyed good health during her preg-
nancy with S.P., and that she had taken no drugs or alcohol. After my
interview with S.P.'s mother, Godwin Samararatne (my senior assistant in
Sri Lanka) had a further interview with her concerning the medical care she
had received during her pregnancy with S.P. He learned the following de-
tails: When her pregnancy was at 5 months, she attended a clinic in a nearby
town and was told her pregnancy was normal. She returned to the clinic at 6
months, was examined by the medical officer, and was again told the preg-
nancy was normal. She was given some tablets, probably vitamins. At the
8th month she again attended the clinic and was told the pregnancy was
normal. She was examined this time by the head nurse, but not by the
doctor, apparently because the pregnancy was still judged normal. Records
of these visits were not obtainable, but we did obtain a copy of the record of
S.P.'s delivery at a nearby hospital. The delivery was described as taking
place normally at full term. The hospital report noted the absence of the
upper limbs of the baby and talipes equinovarus of the feet. The baby was
also noted to have a hydrocele.
Discussion
I shall first describe the interpretations of this case favored by the infor-
mants and then offer my own opinion.
The idea that some events happen by chance is a Western notion and a
relatively recent one (in its widespread acceptance) even in the West. The
majority of men and women have believed, and the majority of them still
believe, that we can find causes for everything that happens to us, as individ-
uals, if only we seek well enough. Moreover, causes are, ultimately, due to
the conduct or misconduct of persons. Accordingly, my informants consid-
ered that some personal factor had entered into the causation of the birth
defects in S.P.
All the informants were Theravadin Buddhists and believed in reincarna-
permits appeals during life's crises to Hindu gods, such as Vishnu and
Kataragama.) S.P.'s parents believed that S.P. was the murdered Y.S. re-
born, with congenital deformities corresponding to the wounds on Y.S. On
the other hand, Y.S.'s mother ?nd older brother could not accept that Y.S.,
who had, after all, been the victim in the murder, could be reborn as a
deformed child. Why should he suffer, they reasoned, for another's crime?
They believed that S.P.'s birth defects were a punishment of his parents for
the crime of murdering Y.S.
Although most Sinhalese people believe in maternal impressions, none of
my informants mentioned a maternal impression as a possible cause of the
birth defects. S.P.'s mother had not viewed Y.S.'s dead body (although she
must have heard the descriptions of the wounds); nor was she pregnant at
the time of the murder. These features are usually present in "standard"
cases of maternal impression, and their absence in this case may have led the
informants to set this interpretation aside.
However, the members of Y.S.'s family who believed that S.P.'s birth
defects punished his family for the murder must also have believed that the
cursing (whatever specific words were used) had been successful. Sorcery is
widely practiced in Sri Lanka and its efficacy generally believed in. In sor-
cery the complainant hires a priest to invoke the supernatural powers of
gods in order to punish-with injury, illness, or death-a person who has
seriously offended him. The act of sorcery is a kind of vicarious cursing. It
appears to be much commoner than face-to-face cursing, because Obeyese-
kere (1975, p. 16) found that only 10% of surveyed clients at three Sri Lanka
sorcery shrines had engaged in personal confrontation with their adver-
saries. Only 4% (included in the mentioned 10%) had engaged in physical
or verbal abuse, which might, we could suppose, have included a direct
cursing.
In offering my own opinion of the case I must first disclaim any intention
to suggest that we can draw a firm conclusion from this single case. My only
purpose in presenting it is to bring to readers' attention the possibility that
images in a pregnant woman's mind may influence the form of her
baby's body.
We now know a great deal more about the causes of birth defects, in
medical terms, than was known 100 or even 50 years ago. Genetic factors,
excessive alcohol and certain drugs taken by a pregnant woman, and some
illnesses, especially rubella (German measles), occurring during pregnancy
have all been clearly identified as factors in birth defects. Older maternal age
also predisposes to the occurrence of some birth defects, particularly Down
syndrome. All these factors should be considered and excluded before we
entertain other possibilities. Having done that, however, we are entitled to
consider other explanations. All the known causes of birth defects together
explain only 30-35% of them (Wilson, 1973). There remain 65-70% in
which physicians must acknowledge that they have no explanation. I believe
that in Turner's case and in the one reported here we can exclude the known
2 10 I. Stevenson
causes of birth defects. For these cases we can, therefore, consider other
possible causative factors.
Although not excluding chance as firmly as my informants did, I believe
that there was some causal connection between the wounds on Y.S. (which
were highly unusual) and the birth defects of S.P. (which were also unusual4
and corresponded with satisfactory closeness to Y.S.'s wounds).
Bodily changes that correspond to mental images may occur through
psychosomatic processes as in cases of stigmatism (Thurston, 1952) and the
reproduction of wounds during the revival of memories of traumatic experi-
ences (Moody, 1948). However, the placental connections between mother
and embryo include no nervous pathways and permit the passage of few
proteins from mother to embryo. It is therefore difficult to understand how
the mother's thoughts could influence the embryo through normal pro-
cesses.
A direct psychokinetic effect of the cursing woman on the embryo is
theoretically possible, but lacks the support of a case parallel to the present
one in which the mother did not know that her baby had been the object of a
cursing. At least I do not know of any such case. Accordingly, in order to
account for the correspondence between the curse and S.P.'s birth defects, I
favor other paranormal explanations: a maternal impression and reincar-
nation.
S.P.'s mother was not pregnant at the time of Y.S.'s murder, and although
she had probably not entirely forgotten the curse when she became pregnant
with S.P., it seems to have sunk into the lower levels of her mind. It certainly
did not preoccupy her in the manner usually described by women figuring
in cases of maternal impressions. These considerations make me slightly
favor the hypothesis that S.P. was Y.S. reborn. I need hardly add that,
considered as an instance of reincarnation, the case is much weaker in
evidence than the many cases in which the subject, when old enough to
speak, made numerous verified statements about the previous life he then
claimed to remember. S.P. died before he had begun to speak coherently,
and we do not know whether he would have expressed any memories of a
previous life if he had lived. I have investigated a few other cases (to be
published) in which a birth defect was the only (or almost the only) item of
evidence linking a subject with a particular deceased person.
If we seriously consider either maternal impression or reincarnation as an
explanatory hypothesis for this case (and similar ones) we are bound to ask
how images in the mind of one person (respectively, in this case, the preg-
nant mother-to-be or the murdered man) can influence the form of an
embryo. This question leads to conjectures about an intermediate vehicle
that somehow acts as a template for the communication of physical form
from one body to another. I intend to discuss this possibility in the larger
work from which I have extracted this case report. To do so here would carry
me beyond my stated intention in presenting this case and also far beyond
the warrant for such conjectures that a single case can provide.
Birth defects from cursing?
Endnotes
' Authors skeptical about maternal impressions sometimes state that William Hunter con-
ducted a prospective study of pregnant women who claimed they had been frightened but who
nevertheless gave birth to normal babies. Charles Darwin (1868) stated that Hunter described
this study and its negative results to his father, Dr. Robert Darwin. However, such an investi-
gation was never published and probably was never carried out. Two authorities on William
Hunter whom I consulted knew nothing about it. It remains true, however, that Hunter
inveighed against the belief in maternal impressions in his lectures (Hall, 1785).
* In this case the husband (and father) did not aim his curse at the unborn baby as did the
husband (and father) of the first case. However, one may suppose that both the women cursed
had somewhat similar mental images after being cursed.
I asked this question with the hypothesis of reincarnation in mind and from my experience
with children having severe birth defects that corresponded to fatal wounds in a person whose
life the child later remembered. As mentioned, full details of such cases will be published in a
forthcoming book.
Birch-Jensen (1949) stated that the incidence of amelia of the upper arm at birth was I in
about 270,000. Frantz and O'Rahilly ( 196 1) found that among 13 cases of amelia of the upper
arm, 7 (54%) were bilateral. Combining these data we can estimate that the incidence of
bilateral amelia of the upper arm is about 1 in 500,000 births. The condition is so unusual that it
is not even mentioned in the usual inventories of the incidences of common congenital defor-
mities. (Amelia did occur more commonly during the brief epidemic of thalidomide intoxica-
tion, but that drug was not in question in the present case.)
References
Barrow, M. V. (1971). A brief history of teratology to the early 20th century. Teratology, 4,
119-130.
Birch-Jensen, A. (1949). Congenital deformities of the upper extremities. Copenhagen: Andels-
bogtrykkeriet i Odense and Det Danske Forlag.
Burrell, R. J. W. (1963). The possible bearing of curse death and other factors in Bantu culture
on the etiology of myocardial infarction. In T. N. James & J. W. Keyes (Eds.), The etiology
of myocardial infarction (pp. 95-100). Boston: Little, Brown.
Dabney, W. C. (1890). Maternal impressions. In J. M. Keating (Ed.), Cyclopaedia of the
diseases of children, Vol. 1 (pp. 19 1-2 16). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
Darwin, C. (1868). The variation of animals andplants under domestication. 2 vols. New York:
Orange Judd.
Frantz, C. H., & O'Rahilly, R. (1961). Congenital skeletal limb deficiencies. Journal of Bone
and Joint Surgery, 43-A, 1202-1224.
Hall, C. (1785). The medical family instructor: Containing a selection of interesting subjects,
calculated for the information and preservationof mankind, together with the management of
child-bed women, and children. Shrewsbury: T. Wood.
Kellie, G. (1808). Case of defect in the fingers. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 4,
252-253.
Mackinder, D. ( 1857). Deficiency of fingers transmitted through six generations. British Medi-
cal Journal, ii, 845-846.
Mathis, J. L. (1964). A sophisticated version of voodoo death: Report of a case. Psychosomatic
Medicine, 26, 104-107.
Montgomery, W. F. (1857). An exposition of the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. Philadel-
phia: Blanchard and Lea.
212 I. Stevenson
Moody, R. L. (1948). Bodily changes during abreaction. The Lancet, ii, 934-935.
Obeyesekere, G. (1975). Sorcery, premeditated murder, and the canalization of aggression in Sri
Lanka. Ethnology, 14, 1-23.
Raine, K. ( 1977). The lion's mouth. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Stevenson, 1. ( 1974). Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation (2nd ed.). Charlottesville: Univer-
sity Press of Virginia. (First published in 1966.)
Stevenson, I. (1985). Birth defects from cursing? A case report. British Medical Journal, 290,
1813.
Thurston, H. (1952). The physical phenomena of mysticism. London: Burns Oates.
Turner, E. K. (1960). Teratogenic effects on the human foetus through maternal emotional
stress: Report of a case. The Medical Journal ofAustralia, 47(2), 502-503.
Warkany, J. ( 1959). Congenital malformations in the past. Journal of Chronic Diseases, IO,
84-96.
Warkany, J. (1971). Congenital malformations: Notes and comments. Chicago: Year Book
Medical Publishers.
Wilson, J. G. (1973). Environment and birth defects. New York: Academic Press.
Journal oJScientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 213-216, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Comments on Slanger's "Internal Clock"
The recent paper "Evidence for a short-period internal clock in humans" by

Tom Slanger provides an excellent example of a very simple experiment
where the experimenter is the operator, and the intriguing result may prove
to be a particularly clear example of the "experimenter effect" (White,
1977). Slanger's analytical techniques are robust and the results are certainly
persuasive. The possibility of subconscious rejection of data is openly ac-
knowledged, and constitutes one possible explanation. An alternative is that
the experimenter replicates a result that they find interesting by a process
akin to remote viewing.
It is evident that multicellular organisms could develop extremely precise
"internal clocks" which would reset in response to repeated environmental
stimuli. The experiments reported by Slanger and his colleagues are most
interesting to me both as a student of psi effects and as a naturalist interested
in the awareness of time at the cellular level. The following previously
unpublished work illustrated how little we understand about temporal ef-
fects in biosystems.
Exogenous stimuli such as repeated light-dark cycling trigger a wide vari-
ety of robust cyclic behaviors in single-celled motile microalgae which per-
sist as "free running" rhythms long after the stimulus is removed. However,
the internal cellular clock appears to be sensitive to a variety of secondary
stimuli which combine in such subtle ways that a new culture of a clone of
the same species will often behave dramatically differently to its precursor,
for no obvious reason. Figure 1 illustrates the ability of the alga Tetraselmis
succia to replicate rhythms initially developed by growth in 12-hour
dark-12-hour light cycles after the light cycling was terminated. A 12-hour/
cycle is clearly evident, and it extends through two cell divisions.
The sensitivity of the time-keeping mechanism is illustrated in Figure 2,
which shows a velocity and vector set obtained under conditions that were
nominally identical. There is no obvious source of a four-hour stimulus in
the lab environment, and no evident biological reason why four-hour cy-
cling would be advantageous. It is this that is so interesting to the biologist:
The cell seems to have responded to a very subtle change in the local
environment by changing its time base. The change is so extreme that at first
sight one would appear to be dealing with a different specie.
Any biological explanation of the phenomena which Tom Slanger de-
scribes must, as he has pointed out, account for the apparently unnecessary
precision. The current evolutionary paradigm suggests that biological sys-
214 Letter to the Editor
1
-0 0000 a400 0400 0000 UOO -00 2000 2400 0400 0000 PO0 -0
Fig. 1. Laser Doppler tracking of Tetraselmis succia. Single axis Doppler shifted He/Ne laser
light scattered from the motile cells provides an analog of cell swimming speed (Activity,
A) and motion, up or down (B). Data for records A and B are acquired simultaneously
and overlaying A and B is appropriate. Although these cultures were initially grown in 12
on: 12 off light dark cycles, illumination throughout this experiment was constant.
tems, especially highly evolved ones, use internal devices whose tolerances
contribute to the well-being of the whole. Why therefore should a highly
evolved organism like Homo sapiens need to be sensitive to clock time to
one part in lo4?
The following suggestion correlates with my personal experience, and the
general structure of the literature on the so-called "experimenter effect."
(White, 1977). First, think of the act of looking at one's watch as a very
simple classical experiment. The objective, apparatus, and method are all
quite clear. Assume for the sake of discussion that the experimenter has a
preferred form for the outcome; a subconscious preference for an "interest-
ing" result would be quite sufficient. It is instructive to ask the personal
question: If I sensed that I was observing an anomaly which was tractable
(which could be the subject of repeated experiments by millions of people)
Letter to the Editor 21 5
TlMe ff D A Y
Fig. 2 . Apparatus and method as in Figure 1 . The culture was prepared from the same stock as A
and C.
would I have a preference for a specific outcome? Surely everyone who has
been drawn into science by the excitement of finding out more about life
would have to admit to a preference for a stimulating result. This stimulus,
derived from conscious or subconscious preference, may be one of the
psychological factors that J. B. Rhine had in mind when he defined an
experimenter "not simply, as would commonly be supposed, one who rules
out all normal cues to the target and administers a randomized set of targets
to the subject, but rather as one who can succeed in liberating the psi
function under adequate testing conditions" (Rhine, 196 1).
Needless to say, the suggestion that Slanger's intriguing result may be a
direct manifestation of the experimenter effect has no value, in terms of an
explanation. It is only a suggestion for a context. However, it is possible that
the contextual map on which the phenomenon lies includes other psi phe-
nomena, particularly the class known as remote viewing. Professional sai-
lors used to be encouraged to train themselves to wake at precise times
without the use of alarm clocks, and I have personally found that this skill is
216 Letter to the Editor
quite readily acquired. Training generally involves visualizing a clock,
whose hands have just reached the desired wake-up time, and associating
that image with awakening. Many people find that they can do this with
amazing consistency and precision, and it may be that the same supra-self
functional in remote viewing is at work in the local environment, watching
the clock, ready to inform the neurophysiological system when time reaches
a point of interest.
C. M. Pleass
Senior Research Scientist
University of Delaware
College of Marine Studies
Robinson Hall
Newark, DE 19716
References
Rhine, J. B. ( 196 1). New experimenters in parapsychology. Parapsychology Bulletin, 58, 1-4.
White, R. A. (1977). The influence of experimenter motivation, attitudes and methods of
handling subjects on psi results. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.), Handbook of parapsychology (pp.
273-30 1 ). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 2 17-2 19, 1989 0892-33 10189 $3.00+.00
BOOK RE VIEW
The Relativity Question, by Ian McCausland. Toronto: published by the

author, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto, 1988,
+
v 11 1 pp. (paper).
In 1972, Herbert Dingle-a philosopher and acknowledged expert in

relativity-published Science at the Crossroads (London: Martin Brian &
O'Keeffe), a classic in the literature of scientific controversy. The book
describes Dingle's attempt to have substantively addressed his claim that the
formulation of the special theory of relativity is paradoxical.
According to the special theory, two clocks in uniform motion relative to
one another keep (or perceive) time at different rates. But since there exists
no preferred frame of reference against which to measure the speeds with
which the clocks move, there is also no basis for deciding which of the clocks
runs faster and which runs slower. Is that not paradoxical?
One obvious possible answer to Dingle's claim of paradox would be that
neither of the two clocks actually runs faster than the other, it is just that
each sees the other as running slower (or faster?). Some of the acknowledged
experts in fact proffered that answer; but most did not, and some cited
experimental evidence to show that the disparity in time-passing is physi-
cally real. Others again, despite having taught relativity to students, admit-
ted to Dingle that they had not the insight into the theory to answer the
"subtle point" he had raised. Most of those few who accepted Dingle's
challenge-and also the editors of Nature-resorted to patent obfuscation:
for instance John Ziman, who answered the question as to which clock runs
faster thus: "the fastest working clock between any two events is one that
travels between them by free fall." Never mind, apparently, that the special
theory of relativity deals only with relative uniform motion, whereby gravi-
tation and free fall and acceleration cannot be taken into consideration.
(Einstein himself had committed this mistake when, in his original paper, he
gave as illustration that a clock at the equator would run slower than one at
the pole.)
Dingle died in 1978 without having received what seemed to him a satis-
factory substantive answer to his question. Now Ian McCausland has taken
up the story where Dingle's book left it, by commenting on the reviews that
Dingle's book received and by relating his own attempts to have Dingle's
Question receive a substantive answer. Both Dingle's book and McCaus-
land's afford the opportunity to learn about little-recognized aspects of sci-
entific activity; and the books should be required reading most particularly
for those who attempt scientific exploration of anomalous phenomena.
218 Book Review
Those who whiff "crank" at the hint of anti-Einstein or anti-relativity
should be reassured: this is no attack on the general theory of relativity, in
which time-dilation accompanies acceleration; nor is any claim being made
as to what actually happens when two clocks are in uniform relative motion
(if only because it is not taken for granted that there actually exists no
physically preferred frame of reference). The Dingle Question is simply
intended to show self-inconsistencies in the formulation of the special
theory: the claim is simply that it is paradoxical to assert that two identical
clocks, in a situation where there exists no basis for distinguishing the one
from the other, can keep time at different rates, that time for those two
clocks can actually pass at different rates.
In response, one has to say either, "Dingle is obviously right"; or-and
much more commonly-one says, "Relativity is so complicated, recondite,
subtle a matter that I can't possibly think about it; if the experts tell me that
Dingle is wrong, and if their experiments seem to support them-or at least
don't contradict them-then I have to believe them." And so "The Relativ-
ity Question" exemplifies the dilemma we all find ourselves in: matters of
science and technology, matters indeed of life and death, are decided by the
experts in language that seeks to exclude the laity; and we hesitate to push
the experts to explain because we doubt our own ability to distinguish sense
from nonsense when specialized technicalities are under discussion. Surely,
however, one can discern it when a Ziman (see quote above) evades a
question? Surely one can draw a conclusion when a President of the Royal
Society (cited, with documentation, by Dingle) confesses lack of under-
standing of a subject that he teaches?
In this reviewer's opinion, this controversy illustrates several points that
are germane to students of the anomalous:
1. When something works in science, it is used and thereby implicitly ac-
cepted, even if there is no physical basis for the mathematical formulation or
if the physical basis ascribed to the mathematics is doubtful or even illogical.
And further, the experts will deny that the physical interpretation is illogical
or that any problem exists with it (unless and until some alternative view is
in the offing).
This state of affairs runs counter, of course, to the popular view of science;
but there are many examples of the refusal to see something wrong with an
inadequate theory so long as no better alternative has been proposed: apart
from the Dingle Question, note the acceptance over decades of the concept
of the potential-independent electrochemical transfer-coefficient (Henry H.
Bauer, 1968, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 16, 419-432); or, the
acceptance by biochemists of the chemically meaningless concept of "en-
ergy-rich" bonds (Daniel E. Atkinson, 1988, Science, 242, 946-947); or, the
ignoring of statistical fallacies in epidemiologic studies (Alvan R. Feinstein,
1988, Science, 242, 1257-1263). ( I would be grateful for references to other
instances of this, which one might call the ostrich phenomenon.)
2. Mainstream journals cannot cope well with unorthodoxy or controversy.
Book Review 2 19
Even when they wish to be open to minority views-if only so as not to miss
out on publishing a breakthrough-ultimately they must bow to the ortho-
doxy imposed by the processes of peer review. As a result, one periodically
sees unorthodoxy published (though not without a struggle) only to find it
quickly abandoned again or even attacked by the very periodical that first
published it (whereupon the proponents of the unorthodoxy feel stabbed in
the back, though they would also have been furious if they had not achieved
publication in the first place). Nature's handling of the Dingle affair, well
documented by McCausland and Dingle, is a case in point; earlier there had
been erroneous denigration of sonar apparatus used in Loch Ness, and inept
handling of remote-viewing studies; recently, the Benveniste affair. (Again, I
would be grateful for references to other similar instances.)
3. Perhaps stimulated by frustration over these two types of response, pro-
tagonists of unorthodox views easily slip into making excessive claims. Thus
Dingle sought to have authoritative bodies take formal part in his quest for
an answer-when authority simply can have no proper intellectual role in
science; and he sought to buttress that attempt by claiming that society finds
itself in some great (albeit undefined) danger because of the acceptance by
atomic physicists of the erroneous theory.
Finally, this controversy could help to teach humility by reminding us
how very difficult indeed it is to advance intellectually, and that we all are
prone to lapses that seem inexplicable to other reasonable people. Thus
John Ziman's evasion of the Dingle Question seems incongruous since he
has written arguably the best, authentic, accounts of science as an intellec-
tual and social activity, in Public Knowledge, The Force of Knowledge, and
Reliable Knowledge (all Cambridge University Press, respectively 1968,
1976 and 1978). If Ziman has such blind spots, then surely I-we all-have
some too, and moreover of the very worst sort: ones we are incapable of
knowing about.
Henry H. Bauer
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
& State University
Society for Scientific Exploration
Officers
Peter A. Sturrock, President Laurence W. Fredrick, Secretary

Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, Department of Astronomy
ERL 306 P.O. Box 3818
Stanford University University of Virginia
Stanford, CA 94305 Charlottesville, VA 22903
Yervant Terzian, Vice President Charles R. Tolbert, Treasurer
Department of Astronomy Department of Astronomy
Cornell University P.O. Box 38 18
Ithaca, NY 14853 University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Council
John S. Derr Dean I. Radin

U.S. Geological Survey, MS 967 AI/MMI Laboratory
Box 25046, Federal Center Contel Technology Center
Denver, CO 80225 Chantilly, VA 22021-3808
Brenda Dunne Ian Stevenson
Engineering Anomalies Research Dept. of Behavioral
School of Engineering & Applied Science Medicine and Psychiatry
Princeton University University of Virginia
Princeton, NJ 08544 Charlottesville, VA 22908
Robert Jahn Marcello Truzzi
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences Center for Scientific Anomalies
D-334 Engineering Quadrangle P.O. Box 1052
Princeton University Ann Arbor, MI 48 106
Princeton, NJ 08544
Jessica Utts
Hal E. Puthoff Division of Statistics
B-121, Institute for Advanced Studies University of California
Barnes-Connally Center Davis, CA 956 16
130 1 Capital of Texas Highway, S.
Austin, TX 78746

Journal of Scientific Exploration (OBE)

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Is1JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION

A Publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration

Volume 3, Number 1 1989

1 Arguments Over Anomalies: 11. Polemics Henry H. Bauer

) 15 Anomalies: Analysis and Aesthetics Robert G. Jahn

27 Trends in the study of Out-of-Body Experiences: Carlos S. Alvarado

43 A Methodology for the Objective Study of William Braud

65 Experiments Investigating the Influence of Intention Dean Radin

81 A Case of the Possession Type in India With Ian Stevenson

Indexed in CABS ISSN 0892-3310

Volume 3, Number 2 1989

1 103 New Ideas in Science Thomas Gold

133 A Replication Study: Three Cases of Children in Antonia Mills

185 Searching for "Signatures" in Anomalous Human- Dean I. Radin

20 1 A Case of Severe Birth Defects Possibly Due to Ian Stevenson

Letter to the Editor

213 Comments on Slanger's "Internal Clock" C. M. Pleass

I 2 17 The Relativity Question, by Ian McCausland Henry H. Bauer

I List of Contents and Author Index

i Indexed in CABS ISSN 0892-3310

Assistant Editor: Henrietta Bensussen.

Copyright O 1989 Society for Scientific Exploration

Printed in the U.S.A

Arguments Over Anomalies: 11. Polemics

Abstract-Arguments over different anomalies have common elements.

Beliefs, not Facts are at Issue

Beliefs and Evidence

Williamson, 1987) commented on the impartiality of the discussion as an

Arguments Within Scientific Disciplines

Arguments About Anomalies

cia1 scientists, Hynek was an astronomer and ufologist, Grover Krantz is an

No one disputes the power or truthfulness of science. The believers insist

Misconceptions About Science

Most interesting, of course, are those anomalies over which argument

Abstract-In properly allying itself with traditional scientific tenets and

Three epistemological premises prompted the conception and birth of our

1. Empirical anomalies in any scientific sector can be precious indicators of

example, we might point to the prevailing plethora of criticism concerning

With equally misplaced authority, the Astronomer Royal, Richard Wooley,

Modern science has proven supremely effective in systematically subdi-

comprehension collectively, rather than individually? And do we not need

echelon of the analytical astronomers-Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler,

Kepler similarly rationalized his orbital geometry:

promoted scientific study of astrology, alchemy, prophecy, magic, and

Neils Bohr responded with his own radical conviction:

. . . causality may be considered as a mode of perception by which we reduce our

Erwin Schrodinger took a yet more vigorous metaphysical position:

And Louis de Broglie, the Prince of particulate probability, closely presaged

There is no substitute for thorough reading of the extensive personal

10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 55100

Fig. 2. REG cumulative deviations from chance, one operator.

50000 100000 150000 200000 250000

Fig. 3. REG cumulative deviations from chance, all operators.

respectively. Note the perseverance of the substantial low-intention efforts,

1 b) PSEUDO - REG -I .OO I

0 50 100 150 200 250

Heisenberg also offered a similar generalization of the complementarity

and Pauli specifically addressed it to our context:

In short, our plea is for more formal acknowledgement of the pervasive

task, fraught with all manner of seductive and dangerous sinkholes of

Two fundamental functions of consciousness underlie every statement of physics:

We can and, wherever possible, we should keep trying to accommodate our

Trends in the Study of Out-of-Body Experiences: