Week 8: The psychophysiology of psychic experiences

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Week 8- The psychophysiology of psychic
experiences

• Dr. Christine Simmonds

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• from the perspective of modern neuroscience,
  all experiences are generated by brain activity,
  or at the very least strongly correlated with
  brain activity. To date there has not been a
  single type of paranormal experience that is not
  understandable in terms of known brain functions.
  The consideration of these experiences as
  predictable components of brain activity will
  allow the differentiation between the illusions
  of intrinsic stimulation and the validity of
  information obtained through mechanisms yet to be
  explained
• M. Persinger (2001)

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Why look for evidence for psi in the brain/body?

• Several researchers have suggested that a vast
  number of psi incidents are taking place below
  the threshold of consciousness
• Expression when needed, e.g. Cox, Stanford
• Psi mimics subliminal perception
• Like normal perception but distant in time and/or
  space
• Patterns of psi are higher in those with brain
  damage/some level of mental deficiency
• Psi drawings mimic those of people with
  neurological difficulties

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Right hemisphere and psi?
Passive acceptance or appreciation, diffuse
attending, paralogical thought processes,
decreased boundary perception, dominance of
sensory over formal imagery, spatial, concrete,
holistic, non-linear, analogical, intuitive and
unconscious processes Braud (1975)
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Right hemisphere and psi - evidence

• Myers observation re automatic writing
• Eusapia Palladino ? left handed
• Ehrenwalds neurological patients drawings
• Parietal and occipital damage
• Braud and Braud (1975)
• Broughton (1976, 1982)
• Alexander and Broughton (1999)

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The right hemisphere is also implicated in pseudo
psychic thinking
Right hemisphere

• Left
• hemisphere

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Temporal lobe structures and psi

• There have been reports of every form of psi
  experience during limbic epileptic seizures
• There is a link between temporal lobe lability
  and subjective paranormal experiences
• E.g., Neppe, Persinger, Simmonds,
• Persingers work stimulating temporal lobes
• Recent work in TLE patients by Palmer and Neppe
• Interviews with 20 patients reporting SPEs
  confirmed that most had at least 1 credible ESP
  experience.

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Just to remind you.
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(No Transcript)
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EEG and ESP

• EEG alpha and psi
• EEG theta and psi
• E.g.,Tart (1963)
• Twins and EEG concordance, Duane and Bherendt
  (1965)
• Meditators and EEG concordance, Kozak, Standish,
  Johnson, Richards Stewart, (2005)

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Remote evoked potentials

• Distant detection of strobes May, Targ and
  Puthoff (1974)
• Hearnes visual potentials (1977, 1981)
• The transferred potential

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The transferred potential

• a physiological connection between two brains?
• Deep communication
• Visual/auditory stimulus
• Evoked potential
• Grinberg Zylberbaum et al (e.g., 1993)
• Not replicated by Sabell, Clarke and Fenwick
  (2001)

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Event-related potentials and psi
No conscious psi, but a physiological indication
of psi

• Don, McDonough and colleagues and gamma ERPS
• Explored ESP in several selected and unselected
  ps
• ERPs in EEG gamma range
• Why? Ayahuasca or telepathine ?more gamma
  activity
• More 40Hz power was associated with getting a
  hit
• 40Hz/gamma may translate psi into consciousness
• Ogata, Smith and Zhang (2003) auditory evoked
  potential

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Case study research employing brain-mapping
techniques in psychics

• Sean Harribance
• More alpha in the right hemisphere (parietal and
  occipital areas)
• Specificity of details of psi information
  correlated with occipital alpha
• High frequency gt30hz (gamma) over right
  hemisphere superimposed on alpha
• Increased sensitivity of brain to magnetic pulses
• Participant BSJ
• Higher alpha in left frontal area and temporal
  regions and higher beta in left frontal region
  and right temporal region than during the control
  period
• More beta in the left hemisphere frontal region
• Ingo Swann
• Correlation of r.6 between numbers of unusual 7
  Hz spike activity over occipital regions and the
  accuracy of congruence between stimuli and
  comments
• There were anomalous signals in sub-cortical
  white matter in parieto-occipital interface of
  the right hemisphere

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What does this imply about psi and the brain?

• Psi may be associated with older parts of the
  brain
• E.g., limbic activity, illustrated by association
  with hypnagogia, theta, alpha and psi
• But some cortical activity is also needed
• Extraversion, findings from ERP gamma research
• Cortex may work as attentional filter
• Cortex associated with binding conscious
  experience
• Psi may work more where there is increased
  connectivity
• E.g., boundary thinness, more intercalation
  between the two hemispheres

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How might psi work?

• As distant and non-local perception
• Roll and Persinger (1998)
• Extra attentional mechanisms parietal activity
• Increased sensitivity to psi stimuli combined
  with other sensory information from the
  environment by parahippocampal gyrus which
  integrates multimodal sensory info into a common
  code
• Roll, Persinger, Webster, Tiller and Cook (2002)
• Psi happens less when there is more attention to
  the external environment
• More imaginative, reality constructing modes of
  thinking

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• But what about the rest of the body?

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Presentiment effect

• Braud labile systems (like electrodermal
  activity) are a better target system than fixed
  ones
• Presentiment a physiological precognitive?
  response to a future event
• e.g. Radin (1997)
• Random presentation of calm and emotional images
• violent or pornographic images used
• Electrodermal and other physiological activity is
  monitored
• Bierman e.g. 2001
• Savva and French, 2001- no effects
• Bierman is finding presentiment effects at the
  level of the brain

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Radins methodology
Computer randomly selects photo
Screen goes blank
Participant presses button
3 seconds or less
7.5 seconds
10 seconds
Blank screen
Blank screen
Continuous physiological record
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The presentiment effect calm versus emotional
targets (from Bierman and Radin)
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The presentiment effect erotic versus violent
targets (from Bierman and Radin)
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Being stared at?

• Several studies have addressed being stared at
  from a physiological perspective
• E.g., Braud, Shafer Andrews (1993)
• Controversial set of studies
• Schmidt et al (2004) undertook a meta analysis of
  the sum total of this work
• there is a small effect size (d.13, p .01)
• Need for replication
• Need for theoretical concepts

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Selected references for further reading 1

• EEG and psi
• A Search for Alpha Power Changes Associated with
  Anomalous CognitionEdwin C. May S. James P.
  Spottiswoode Laura V. Faith
• Find at http//www.jsasoc.com/docs/Ijpv2.pd
  f
• Tart, C. (1963). Physiological Correlates of Psi
  Cognition. International Journal of
  Parapsychology, 5, 375-386.
• find at http//www.paradigm-sys.com/display
  /ctt_articles2.cfm?ID48
• Right hemisphere and psi
• Alexander C. Broughton, R (2001). Cerebral
  hemisphere dominance and ESP performance in the
  autoganzfeld - Statistical Data Included, Journal
  of Parapsychology, find at http//www.findarticle
  s.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_4_65/ai_82066935
• ERPs and psi
• Don, NS, Mcdonough, BE b Warren, CA (1998).
  Event-related brain potential indicators of
  unconscious Psi a replication using subjects
  unselected for Psi ERP, Journal of
  Parapsychology. Find at
• http//www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2
  320/is_2_62/ai_53490038
• Mcdonough, BE, Don, NS Warren CA (2002).
  Differential event related potentials to targets
  and decoys in a guessing task. Journal of
  Scientific Exploration, 16, 187-206.
• Find at
• http//www.scientificexploration.org/jse/a
  rticles/pdf/16.2_mcdonough_don_warren.pdf

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References for further reading 2

• Investigating a special claimant
• Alexander, C., ,Persinger, M, Roll, B Webster,
  D (1998). EEG and SPECT data of a selected
  subject during psi tests The discovery of a
  neurophysiologcal correlate. Journal of
  Parapsychology, 62, 102-104Find at
• http//www.seanharribance.com/sciartespthre
  e.html
• The presentiment effect
• Dean Radin article on presentiment. Find at
  http//www.boundaryinstitute.org/articles/presenti
  ment99.pdf
• Richard Broughton on presentiment. Find at
• http//www.parapsych.org/papers/02.pdf
• The sense of being stared at
• Article by Schmidt, Schneider, Utts Walach
  (2003) in the BJP
• Find at http//www.siib.org/Downloads/Schmid
  t_EDA_DMILS_MA_BJP_2004.pdf