Why perform online psi experiments like this?

[davidsmith73]

Rupert Sheldrake has been conducting an online experiment in remote staring that is completely uncontrolled. Basically, two participants are given instructions to play the role of sender and receiver. The sender is given an instruction to either stare or not stare (chosen randomly) and is told to start each trial with the use of a mechanical click or beep. However because the experiment is online, the participants are free to start the trials in any way they want, for example by saying "start". Rupert would never know the difference. Furthermore he actually acknowledges this! :

"Because these experiments took place under uncontrolled and unsupervised conditions, we cannot eliminate the possibility that some people were cheating, or that some starers were inadvertently giving clues to the subjects by the way they gave the signal for the beginning of the trial or by unintentional sounds that were different in the staring and the not staring trials."


This makes the results of the experiment completely invalid! (which are extremely significant by the way). There's no point in doing this kind of experiment. I used to respect Rupert as a sceintist but I'm having my doubts of late.

online staring experiment (http://www.sheldrake.org/experiments/staring/exp/results.html)

[Aussie Thinker]

David,

Sounds like you are getting sceptical in your old age ?

[Mojo]

Because otherwise they might not get the desired results?

[davidsmith73]

Originally posted by Aussie Thinker
David,

Sounds like you are getting sceptical in your old age ?

Oh dear, some cable tv documentaries on psychic powers should cure me :D

[Ashles]

Originally posted by davidsmith73
This makes the results of the experiment completely invalid! (which are extremely significant by the way). There's no point in doing this kind of experiment. I used to respect Rupert as a sceintist but I'm having my doubts of late.

online staring experiment (http://www.sheldrake.org/experiments/staring/exp/results.html)
This is part of the problem with paranormal researchers. And one where they are actually slightly more hindered than normal scientists.

If a 'normal' scientist researchnig an unexciting area performed such a sloppy experiment it would not necessarily count against earlier excellent studies they may have caried out.

But researchers into paranormal fields are treated particularly sceptically at the best of times, no matter how stringent their studies are. They moment one of them initiates such an uncontrolled experiment as this it is (fairly or unfairly) bound to raise questions about how controlled their earlier work was, regardless of how well it genuinely was undertaken.

Sheldrake is certainly making life more difficult for himself by initiating such uncontrolled studies which will of course be a waste of time as they can't possibly be said to conclude anything useful, no matter what the results.
That's a shame. I don't really understand what he is trying to achieve here.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Sheldrake is not a scientist. Now he doesn't even pretend to be one.

~~ Paul