CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

Jack Houck

THERE is no question but that today’s “hard” science has progressed to the point where it can describe our everyday reality very well. Much progress is now being made in the human, or “soft,” sciences as well, and many models have been formulated in an attempt to expand the currently accepted understanding of physics, a so-called hard science, to include studies of human consciousness.

For the past seven years, I have been particularly interested in trying to understand and explain those paranormal phenomena that have been labelled remote viewing, telepathy, mind-reading, psychometry, psychokinesis, and psychic healing.

When a literature review and experiments suggested that there might well be something to paranormal (sometimes referred to as “psychic”) phenomena, we turned our efforts toward solving the problems of improving the reliability of experiments in these areas as well as applying and understanding the phenomena. The initial experiments were in remote viewing, which involves a subject attempting to “project his mind” to a far-off location and to describe the scene there. (1) Dr. Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ of Stanford Research Institute International relabelled clairvoyance and out-of-body or astral travel as “remote viewing,” because this term is a less glamorous, more accurate one and dissociates remote viewing from the occult. (2)

Remote Viewing

THE conceptual model described in this paper was developed as a result of experiments conducted. Most of the ideas incorporated in this model are not new; almost all of them have been presented before. The model simply integrates them and provides an interface for the many models previously formulated. After it has been tested further and refined, this model could be a powerful link between the hard and soft sciences.

The underlying concepts of this model are as follows. The human brain is both a transmitter and a receiver of information; further, the scope of the brain is not limited simply to one human body. Information about events in all space and time is stored all around us, and the mind accesses this information. The brain receives data both from our physical senses and from this stored information and processes it as a very advanced computer would. The brain/mind can tune into any information in this storage system when given specific instructions about space and time. The more specific the instructions about the information desired, the better the quality of the received (or retrieved) information.

Experimental observations made since 1980, when the model was developed, have suggested that all paranormal phenomena could be explained by using the same concept.

When careful attention is paid to the environment (i.e., by providing a nearly sensory-stimulus-free, dimly lit room with no pictures on the wall, no unusual smells, and no noise), I believe that anyone can experience remote viewing with the aid of a skillful interviewer. He asks questions that allow the remote viewer to be open to perceive the information from all the senses (visual imagery, sounds, smells, feelings, and tastes); a number of researchers call this faculty remote perception. (3, 4)

The data reported at the time of the remote viewing can often be accurate, but related to some other time at the target location. Further analysis suggests that reported data correspond to a time at or near the time when a peak emotional experience occurs at that location. These time shifts, which may occur both forward and backward in time, are one reason why this type of experiment has been difficult to replicate. Techniques for diminishing these difficulties are discussed throughout this paper.

Once the remote viewer is reporting data from the target location, he has, so to speak, complete mobility around the target. He can go above it to look down on it and can move all around it. He can also pass freely through walls. At times the remote viewer perceives things to be a different size from what he would normally perceive them to be. This is easily corrected by asking him to be his normal size, and then things will appear the same size as usual. The more specific the interviewer’s instructions about the location of the target, the time for which the information is desired, the size the remote viewer assumes at the target, and the type of information wanted, the more successful the remote viewing becomes, and the better will be the quality of the data reported. (For example, the subject might be given the location of a person, or latitude and longitude coordinates, or a photograph of the earth’s surface; asked for information a month from now; requested to assume normal size at the target; and asked to “see” the target.) Some results have been astonishingly accurate.

The psychological environment of a remote-viewing experiment is also very important. The interviewer must be supportive of the remote viewer and have some rapport with him. An understanding of neurolinguistic programming (5) can be very useful to the interviewer with respect to working with the remote viewer’s primary brain-sensory processing system. Experimenters who doubt that remote viewing will work generally find that it does not work for them. If you want good remote-viewing results, you must know that it works and must concentrate on getting good data. It is a technique that can be taught; performance does improve with practice.

Warm Forming

On the basis of the early experience with remote viewing, I predicted that psychokinesis or PK (mind interacting with matter) could also be better controlled by creating the proper environment (in this case, by creating a peak, emotionally intense situation), having the individual connect his mind with the object to be affected, as in remote viewing, and then commanding it to do his will.

In January of 1981, I began experimenting with this idea by conducting “PK Parties.” (6) Close to 90 percent of all the people attending these parties (approximately 1500 people of all ages and types, at 60 parties) have learned to bend metal using PK with a process called warm forming. This term suggests the slight temperature increases noted in the metal when it is ready to bend, and also dissociates warm forming from the occult. Approximately half the people who have learned how to warm-form retain the skill even outside the party atmosphere. These PK parties have been replicated over 100 times by other researchers with similar results. Many more parties are being planned by other researchers, because they are reliable demonstrations of PK.

Metallurgical analysis of warm-formed metal has shown that the two most important characteristics of metal that is easily warm-formed are the number of dislocations (i.e., broken crystal structures along the metal grain boundaries) it contains and a low thermal conductivity. Another key factor is that the individual must be consciously willing to warm-form the metal. He must make a mental connection with object to be bent and deliberately will it to bend. After a brief interval, the material becomes soft from internal heating along the grain boundaries. Then a little force will accomplish the bend. Metal with low thermal conductivity stays soft (warm) for only 5 to 15 seconds; thus the most difficult task is finding the right moment to add the extra force. Many brittle and otherwise physically unbendable objects, such as plastic ware, have been bent at these parties. A few pieces of stainless steel tableware that have been warm-formed have then broken with a loud popping sound. Some objects which had large internal stresses and a large number of dislocations, have been bent while being held in one hand and not touched with the other hand. One individual has recently been able to hold a piece of tableware in two hands and actually pull it apart. There have also been reports of other objects in the room bending by themselves, without being touched at all. This effect is probably due to existing stresses in those objects.

In both remote viewing and warm forming, one may occasionally observe what the researchers refer to as “the first-time effect.” A person may get dramatic results the first time he attempts one of these activities, but fail the next time he tries. This occurs because, after bending the piece, he analyzes what he has done and, failing to understand it, becomes a little frightened. The conceptual model of the phenomenon presented in this paper may give people confidence that there can be a scientific explanation for the phenomenon, and it is hoped that this model may help reduce the “first-time effect.” Many people also seem to improve their skill by attending PK parties, which indicates that training is possible and that psychokinesis, like remote viewing, can be taught.

In addition to the remote-viewing and PK experiments, observations have been made of a number of psychic activities by individuals who seem to have unusual talents in mind-reading, telepathy, and psychometry. These activities also seem to conform to the conceptual model here presented.

The Brain: A Conceptual Model

WITH the conceptual model of a brain transmitting and receiving information that is stored all around us, a question naturally arises as to where this information is stored. The answer to this is not known. It is interesting to note, however, that our human senses perceive, for example, only a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is not to suggest that the information-storage system necessarily lies in the known electromagnetic spectrum. To my knowledge, no instruments other than the brain have been able to measure or contact this storage system directly. There are instruments that seem to respond to human will or register when a paranormal event occurs, but it is thought that this is due to PK.

There is much research currently going on in the area of brain function. The biochemical, quantum mechanical, and holographic models of the brain all have made great contributions to our understanding of how it works.

The model of the brain presented here is simplistic by comparison, but will be adequate to help us understand paranormal phenomena. This model uses the analogy of a digital computer for most brain functions: it takes information from both the physical body sensors and from external information-storage system, processes it to produce what we perceive as sense data, and further processes this information by doing what we call thinking, analyzing, comparing, and reacting. The output then goes into the information-storage system (i.e., the memory) and to the reporting system (i.e., speech, muscle movements, etc.).

This model of the brain is shown functionally in Fig. 1. The physical sensors are listed on the left-hand side of the figure. The output of each sensor is represented as if a single signal Swere coming from it, with the subscript B to designate it as coming from a physical (body) sensor. The signal from the nose is designated as 1; from the tongue, as 2; from skin and nerve endings, as 3; from the ears, as 4; and from-the eyes, as 5. Each of these signals goes into the corresponding brain cortex for processing, as shown in Fig. 1.

As stated previously, the mind seems to be capable of reaching outside the physical body and acquiring information in all sensory channels from remote locations outside the body, as far as the other side of the earth – or anywhere in the universe. This is represented in Fig. 1 by a set of signals S with the subscript E to designate that it is from sensors external to the physical sensors. These external sensor signals seem to enter the brain and be processed by the corresponding physical sensory cortices; it is as if the cortices were unaware of the source of the signals they receive. It appears that people sometimes experience both signals, one overlaid on the other. For example, what some people see as an “aura” may be the result of an overlay of signals from both the physical eye and the external visual sensor. It is as if the signals for each sensory type are added together before being processed by the appropriate cortices. They are brought together as shown in Fig. 1 and are then added together. For most people, the signals from the body sensors are strong, compared with the external sensors, when they are awake. During sleep, the signals from the body sensors are relatively weak, and the external signals may be strong enough to be detected and processed. Normally, people do not make specific requests of the mind before and during sleep; thus the mind may be randomly accessing the information-storage system and combining that information with memory data from its own “world line” (its space-time history). When a person undergoes an out-of-body experience, he perceives being out of his body, with his mind functioning in his “astral” head. Sometimes a person “sees” the physical body as separated and distinct from the “astral” body, which may look very similar. I postulate that that person’s physical brain is still doing the data processing and that his physical sensors have become very weak as compared with the external signals.

For remote viewing, we attempt to minimize the signal from the body sensors, while maintaining enough signal to keep the remote viewer attached to “this reality,” and – using a technique described later – we try to maximize the external signal. That technique involves starting with the “slow” senses first. Smell, taste, and touch seem to have slow discrimination rates (for example, it takes a relatively long time to distinguish one smell from another), whereas hearing is fairly fast, and vision is very fast. For that reason, the apparent discrimination rate of each of the senses is shown in Fig. 1.

The output of each sensory cortex is the perceived sensory information. Once the sensory information is processed into detectable sense data, the central cortex is then thought to process the information by thinking, analyzing, comparing, and reacting. It is well known that all these activities should be minimized in order to get good remote-perception data. I am speculating that memory is stored outside the brain and is associated with each person’s world line or space-time history. Thus, a central cortical task of comparing requires the brain to make a request of the information-storage system for some information, and that information will come into the brain through the use of the external sensors, as previously described. This suggests that the external signals from an individual’s own world line are much stronger than the signals from other information in the information system. While the information is being processed in the central cortex, the brain can also report the information in the form of speech or of muscle movements, such as writing or jumping (once I jumped out of my chair when I saw a tennis ball coming right at me). These results are then filed into the information-storage system, defined as the space-time unit (STU). This filing is the brain activity analogous to the activity of a transmitter.

ANOTHER important concept associated with this model is that “background noise” is generated that is proportional (perhaps exponentially proportional) to the amount of information processing going on inside the brain. Throughout Fig. 1, channels from each of the major information-processing activities are shown accumulating the amount of data processing into a total processing load from the brain. The small graph in the lower right-hand corner simply illustrates that this background brain noise level is a function of that total processing load at any instant in time. The background noise N is relatively weak when compared with the normal signals from the physical body sensors. Sensor systems can detect a signal only when that signal is sufficiently greater than the noise (the signal has a greater signal-to-noise ratio) such that the processing technique being used can find the information in the signal. Radar sensors typically have a detection threshold that requires a signal-to-noise ratio of about 14 decibels and requires approximately a 20-decibel signal-to-noise ratio for accurate target tracking. Thus, getting good remote-viewing data and achieving success in any other type of perception activity requires three things: (1) the signal from the physical body sensors must be greatly reduced, (2) the signal from the information-storage system must be maximized, and (3) the background noise must be minimized by reducing as much of the brain’s processing activity as possible.

The signal from the body sensors can be greatly reduced by placing the subject in a dimly lit room with no pictures on the wall, no unusual smells, and no noise. The processing load from the brain’s motor functions is also reduced when the subject is sitting down in a relaxed environment. The load from the central cortex can be reduced by training individuals to minimize those activities. Meditators train themselves to blank out their thoughts and not to analyze or compare when in a meditative state, thus reducing the processing load of the central cortex. As mentioned earlier, the interviewer and remote viewer should work as a team; the interviewer can take over many of these central cortical activities and thus relieve the remote viewer of them. Finally, one can work around the processing load from the sensory cortices by starting the remote viewer off with a request that asks for data only from the slow senses (“smell the perfume of Ms. X at this time”). Most of the techniques being given apply only to the “average” person. There are individuals whose minds continually have good access to this information-storage system and who have trained themselves to process the external information fairly efficiently.

In order to demonstrate how to work with the senses, three plots are shown in Fig. 2. These give a subjective assessment of how the signals for both the body and external sensors vary in the physical brain with time during a typical remote-viewing session. Included also are the background noise and the most important parameter, the signal-to-noise ratio. The uppermost plot (Fig. 2a) contains three lines. The longer dashed line represents the accumulation of signals from all the physical body sensors. This is done only for simplicity in presentation. At the beginning of a remote-viewing session, the remote viewer is brought into a relatively sensory-stimulus-free room that has a comfortable chair, a table, paper and pen, and recording equipment (in an inconspicuous place). As the subject relaxes for approximately 15 minutes, the accumulated signals from the sensors decrease. Similarly, in the middle plot (Fig. 2b), the background noise N is shown decreasing. The rate of drop is not as fast as that of the body sensor signals, because the processing from the central cortical activities continues after the bulk of the sensory input has diminished. At the bottom of Fig. 2c, the signal-to-noise ratio history is shown. When the remote viewer is relaxed, about 15 minutes after entering the room, the interviewer makes the specific request for information from the slow senses. A typical request might be: “Please describe how it: feels to be at a northern latitude of 22 degrees, 19 minutes, and 48 seconds, and an eastern longitude of 31 degrees, 36 minutes, and 54 seconds. Be there at this time and be your normal size.” (That target happens to be Abu Simbel, on the northern shore of Lake Nasser in Egypt.) It then seems that the mind reaches out into the information-storage system, and information from the external senses may come into the brain of the remote viewer. It is not necessary that the remote viewer understand the meaning of latitude and longitude. The increase in the signal from the external senses is shown in Fig. 2a with a short dashed line. This line represents the accumulation of all the external signals. The solid line represents the total signal input S, which is the sum of the body sensor signals and the external sensor signals. The background brain noise must increase as a result of the new input information being processed, as shown in Fig. 2b. As the external data comes in, often the background brain noise increases rapidly. Even though the signal-to-noise ratio begins to rise, it almost immediately drops, as shown in Fig. 2c. This is what psychics call a “flash.” If the remote viewer continues to analyze the information, the information will become distorted by information from his “world line” or memory. If the remote viewer does not get any information, he is requested just to continue to relax and not to think. In either case, after about a minute, another similar request is given by the interviewer, still asking for information from the slow senses. Each time this request is repeated, it seem that the external information signal becomes stronger and is more detectable and understandable. Only after the information begins to come clear does the interviewer ask for auditory and then visual information. Once the signal-to-noise ratio seems strong enough so that the remote viewer can freely move around at the target location, then the interviewer can stop making the specific requests about the target location, time, and scale size and begin to talk to the remote viewer as if he is actually at the target. The interviewer must be careful not to lead the remote viewer, and it is best to ask questions that clarify what the remote viewer is reporting. (For example, a clarifying instruction might be, “Zoom in and describe in more detail the building you mentioned.”) On occasion, I have had to make the initial specific request four or five times before moving to the type of questioning just described.

It is also possible that the remote viewer may spend too much time drawing what he sees, and he may drop out of the state (i.e., his external information signal-to-noise ratio may drop below his detection threshold). It helps to give him feedback to build his confidence that the process works. This feedback also files the correct information on the remote viewer’s time line for future reference as a memory. It is not recommended that a remote viewer do more than one experiment a day, because of the time shifts.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of the information-storage system that we have been discussing. Assume that all information about space and time (past, present, and all possible futures) is contained in the large ellipsoid. The ellipsoid is simply meant to be symbolic, representing all information over all time. This volume of information has been designated a space-time unit (or STU). A two-dimensional plane is used to represent our three-dimensional physical reality at the current instant of-time. It passes through the STU perpendicular to the time axis (the major axis of the ellipsoid). The intersection of this plane and the surface of the STU is a circle, as shown in Fig. 3. The area inside this circle represents our physical universe at the current time. Planes parallel to the one shown would represent other times (either past or future). Thus, a line perpendicular to these planes is a time line.

Note that an infinite number of planes, at all different angles, could have been passed through this STU. A skewed plane would represent a three-dimensional space, acting over a range of our time. Suppose that unidentified flying objects (Ufos) are in a different reality to ours. Occasionally the two realities would intersect and, in effect, materialize a Ufo into our reality. Some people like a concept of nature in which there is no time. In this model, that would be equivalent to being on the surface of the STU and having access to all information inside it, independently of time.

If you think of yourself as the central point on the plane inside the STU at the present time, you have a time line through you – your world line. Your mind has access to all information in the STU in both space and time. This is represented in Fig. 3 by circular dashed lines, in the form of an expanding sphere surrounding you, depicting your mind’s access to the STU. Meditators report that, as they go deeper into meditation, they feel as if they become one with everything around them. As your external sensor signal-to-noise ratio becomes greater, Your access into the STU becomes greater. Even though electromagnetic radiation is limited to the speed of light within the circle representing our physical reality, there is no reason to believe that information transfer within the STU is limited by the speed of light. Most researchers do not believe that remote viewing is limited by distance, and I suspect that the same holds true for psychokinesis.

Emotional Intensity

ALL these ideas, in one form or another, have been presented before by others. One thing that I have noticed, however, is that there also seems to be some type of modulation encoded on the time line of each person, each object, and possibly each atom – a modulation that is somehow proportional to emotional intensity. This is shown in Fig. 3 as a wavy line along the time line.

Normally one thinks of emotions as belonging only to human beings and animals. I have postulated, however, that emotional intensity applies to all things, including inanimate matter (the rocks inside Mount St. Helen’s, for example). Fig. 4 represents the history, or modulation, of emotional intensity on a time line of some target at a remote visual location from a remote viewer. The emotional intensity of the remote viewer (and probably of the interviewer) during the attempt is superimposed on the time line of the remote object, as shown in Fig. 4, with a dashed peak located at the present time on the figure. Assume that, at that point in space or on the time line associated with the target, there has been a huge emotional experience, such as a roof that collapsed and killed 1000 people, as represented by the large peak of emotional intensity in the past in Fig. 4. In the example, the remote viewer’s mind would go to the specified point in space and search in time for the peak emotional event. This process is much like a sophisticated radio that searches for the peak radio signal intensity and then locks onto that frequency. Once the radio-carrier frequency is selected, the information carried on that frequency is heard. Once the mind locks onto the time of a peak emotional event, the complete set of information is available to the remote viewer’s external sensors at or near the time of the peak event. This data can be very vivid visual imagery, which usually has a three-dimensional appearance, much like that of a hologram. In an example like that shown in Fig. 4, a remote viewer can unlock his mind from that peak event by releasing those thoughts, then let his mind search for the time of the next-highest peak. This is analogous to what meditators do when they put aside thoughts that enter their minds. If this process is repeated, the remote viewer will eventually focus on the highest remaining peak, at which he will receive another set of remote-viewing data. There might even be some kind of weighting function that amplifies the emotional peaks lying near the present time. Usually, the remote viewer can feel that the information is near the present time and can proceed to access the desired information.

In psychometry, an individual touches an object and lets information come into his brain that is stored in the STU on the time line of that object. Subjects usually pick up information near peak emotional events. I once had the privilege of observing Dr. Charles T. Tart, of the University of California at Davis, conduct a telepathy experiment similar to the one documented in ref. 7. At the sending end of the experiment, he acted like a cheerleader and had everyone shouting instructions to the receiver, who was located in another building but could be seen on a television monitor. The receiver carried out the shouted instructions accurately. This, combined with an analysis of the implications of Fig. 4, helped me realize that creating a sufficiently high emotional peak at either the target or the perceiver end of an experiment may produce information with minimum time shifts.

As I examined this concept further, I realized that all paranormal phenomena seem to behave in this way. For example, when Dr. William Tiller was at Stanford, he performed a PK experiment in which a discharge tube did not become activated until 10 minutes after the operator began to attempt to affect it, but continued to discharge for 10 minutes after the operator was told to stop. Other examples come from people who do “past life” hypnotic regressions. They find that their subject’s mind goes either forward or backward in time and accesses information near an emotional experience, usually the death of the person whose life produced the information. They find that they can move the subject forward and backward in time around that point and even go on to other “lives.” Sometimes the first information may seem mundane. A good hypnotist will move the person a little forward in time and find the peak event. This suggests that there are errors in the mind’s search system in time. Both positional (spatial) and temporal errors occur in remote viewing. Part of the technique for reducing these errors involves being very specific with the space and time requests and being able to move the subject’s mind in both space and time to find the desired information.

Quantum Mechanics and the Model

CONCEPTS from quantum mechanics can be used to explain the proposed model more fully. Quantum mechanics is used to make statistical predictions of what will be observed. The statistical distribution of possible observations is represented by the Schrodinger wave function. When an observation is made by any type of instrument as well as by the human senses, the wave function is collapsed to some new state. In the center drawing in Fig. 5, an individual is seen observing an airplane, and thus collapsing, or participating in the collapse of, the wave function in order to see the airplane and its surroundings. The suggestion is that all minds participate in a consensus reality (8) and that everyone observing the same airplane sees the same airplane. In this model, the observer’s brain files this information into the STU, where it is also stored by any other observers. The STU keeps all the records of every event; in Fig. 5, this record-keeping is represented by little circles going up from the current observation. As previously discussed, when the individual wants to access a memory, his mind searches back through his world line in the STU to sense that information. His external sensors acquire that information, which he senses in his brain, much like a hologram, with the data being processed as previously discussed. All sensory information from that memory can be accessed. When looking into the future, the mind again accesses an event, usually at or near an emotional peak. The wave function for that time and place contains the likelihood for all the possible events based on all the information in the STU at the current time. As shown in Fig. 5, when the mind goes into the future, it observes and temporarily collapses the wave function to a possible event. These data are seen within the brain with the same clarity as a memory because, again, the external sensors are acquiring the information as before. These data are also filed into the STU on the individual’s world line and may affect his future actions. Often future events are dependent on the actions of many people, any of whom can change their minds because they have free will. Thus, as real time marches on, the wave functions of future events are constantly being changed to reflect their probabilities based on current realities.

When the time of a previously predicted event finally arrives, the state to which the wave function will collapse when observed by the physical sensors may be quite different from what was anticipated. This concept was first suggested to me in a conversation with Dr. Henry Stapp of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

AFTER additional reading and discussion of theoretical models with other researchers, I realized that my map of the STU (Fig. 3) is commonly shown by others in two dimensions, a time dimension and a space dimension used to represent all three physical dimensions. This is shown in Fig. 6. Also shown, at the location corresponding to the individual’s present location, is the physicist’s “light cone,” which defines the space-time zone in our reality, which is bounded by the speed of light. The superimposed circles represent the human mind’s expanding access to the STU as the individual allows himself to be in the state where the signal-to-noise ratio of the external sensors is high. In that state, an individual can have instant access to any other world line in the STU at any time-past, present, and probable futures.

Dr. Elizabeth Rauscher of the University of California, Richmond Field Station, has an eight-dimensional space-time model, which uses complex geometry (9). This model begins to provide a mathematical formulation for the connectivity between world lines on this map. Her model was originally developed to explain remote-viewing data. The key parameter, which has been missing from the physicist’s space-time map, is another dimension, shown as being orthogonal to the space and time dimensions in Fig. 6. This dimension is proportional to emotional intensity. Fig. 7 illustrates what this might look like as a three-dimensional surface. (The axes have been rotated for this presentation.)

It is common for an individual during sleep to have his mind zero in on a big, nearby emotional event, such as a plane crash, even when it is a future occurrence. This happens because the external sensors are very active during sleep and pick up large emotional peaks that are displaced in both space and time.

Fig. 7 also illustrates a possible explanation of why people sometimes experience a series of events with their perception of time dramatically distorted from real clock time. In February 1971, I was driving past Sylmar, California, on the way to conduct a missile test. At 6:05 a.m., the car began to shake as if all four tires had gone flat. Time began to move very slowly, and I could see every detail as the car swerved all over the road. When the car stopped, I realized that a big earthquake had occurred. As shown in Fig. 7, this was a peak emotional event. My world line must have climbed to create a surface stretched in the direction of the emotional intensity, and the subjective time experienced along the world line was long when compared with the clock time.

Psychokinesis and the STU

MOST of this discussion has been about how the mind reaches out into the STU to receive information. For psychokinesis, the mental connection must also be made, but in addition you must tell the material what you want it to do. (At PK parties, for example, I ask everyone to concentrate on the metal to be bent, then shout out, “Bend!”) In some unspecified manner, the “system” translates this goal or thought into the physical mechanism necessary to accomplish that goal. The intensity of the specific command is important. As indicated earlier, creating an emotionally intense situation helps the event occur near the current time, which then provides feedback to the individual. In my opinion, most of the energy used in accomplishing a PK task comes from within or around the object being affected.

A simple analogy is shown in Fig. 8 of a television communication system. The television station wants to send a picture and sound to its TV viewers. The information is collected and superimposed on electromagnetic radiation sent from the TV station antenna. At the viewer’s home, the antenna on the roof picks up a very weak signal, which is delivered to the TV set by the antenna wire, and the TV set displays the information as a picture. The real power or energy used by the TV set to accomplish the goal of displaying the picture is provided by the local power company in the form of electricity.

The actual energy required by the person to connect his mind to the object and command it to bend is very small. The real energy for PK is provided locally. In the case of metal, the dislocations provide the heating along the grain boundaries, which allows the grains to slip. Sometimes this heat along the grain boundaries is so intense that the metal becomes molten and occasionally even turns into gas. This is why there are sometimes fractures of the metal, accompanied by a loud noise. Sometimes a PK event is accompanied by a rapid temperature drop of 10 to 20 degrees in the air around the specimen. The energy is apparently being taken out of the local air. The amazing thing is that the PK operator does not have to specify where the energy is to come from; the “system” provides that detail.

Summary

FIG. 9 is just another way of displaying this conceptual model. The brain is shown acting as a tuner through the STU, providing the receiver for the mind that is collecting external information and maintaining a channel that carries instructions to affect an object remotely. The medical community might look into the idea that the receiver in a senile person’s brain continues to be quite functional, but that the transmitter, the information-filer, is malfunctioning. This may explain why recent data filed in the STU in such persons is not retrievable, while older data is easily retrievable. This may also provide new knowledge about which portions of the brain are related to the memory-transmitting and -receiving functions. Many people believe that this model can be extended even to include creating one’s own future.

The purpose of this paper was to provide a conceptual model of brain/mind functioning that includes paranormal phenomena. It has been suggested that all paranormal phenomena work in a similar manner. By creating a peak emotional experience, the experimenter can cause events to occur at the present time, providing feedback and good test results, so rare in parapsychological research. This concept has been tested by having PK parties, which have been very successful and are replicable. (10)

I did not attempt to provide the data necessary for proof in this paper. The model lacks complete mathematical formulation and an expansive data base drawn from a large number of good experiments. The literature provides much good data, as well as a huge amount of anecdotal information. My ideas have come from an assessment of this literature, from experiments, and from observations of psychically gifted persons learning and performing many “unbelievable” feats.

Many ideas have been presented here that are testable. I hope that they will be tested, and that investigators will provide feedback to the community of researchers. I was confident that there must be a scientific explanation for these phenomena, and this confidence led me to develop this model of how all our brains/minds work. May this pave the way for an even better understanding of our nature.

NOTES

1. Houck, G. B., and J. G. Laird, “Evidence of precognition in remote viewing experiment,” August 1979.

2 Puthoff, H., and R. Targ, “A perceptual channel for information transfer over kilometer distances: Historical perspective and recent research,” Proceedings of the IEEE 64, 3 (March 1976): 329-354.

3. Rauscher, E. A., “Theoretical exploration of remote perception phenomena.” Presentation to France Culture, National Radio France, Cordoba, Spain, Oct. 5, 1979.

4. Jahn, Robert G., “The persistent paradox of psychic phenomena: An engineering perspective,” Proceedings of the IEEE 70, 2 (February 1992): 136-170.

5. Bandler, Richard, and John Grinder, Frogs into Princes (Moab, Utah: Real People Press, 1979).

6. Houck, Jack, “PK party format and materials required,” Mar. 16, 1982.

7. Tart, Charles T., “Improving real-time ESP by suppressing the future trans-temporal inhibition.” in Tart, Charles T., ed., Mind at Large (New York: Praeger, 1979), pp. 137-174.

8. Tart, op. cit.

9. Ramon, C., and E. Rauscher, “Superluminal transformations in complex Minkowski spaces,” Foundations of Physics 10, 7/8 (August 1980): 661-669.

10. Houck, “PK party format.”