Sheldrake's email telepathy

RichardR · 15th July 2006, 10:58 AM

Anyone have a view on Sheldrake's experiments on psi and emails? Apparently people can guess who is going to email them, greater than chance:

Quote:

SUMMARY

This study investigated possible telepathic communication in connection with e-mails. On each trial, there were four potential e-mailers, one of whom was selected at random by the experimenter. One minute before a prearranged time at which the e-mail was to be sent, the participant guessed who would send it. 50 participants (29 women and 21 men) were recruited through an employment web site. Of 552 trials, 235 (43%) guesses were hits, significantly above the chance expectation of 25%. Further tests with 5 participants (4 women, 1 man, ages 16 to 29) were videotaped continuously. On the filmed trials, the 64 hits of 137 (47%) were significantly above chance.

As I recall, his experiments on staring were criticized for poor randomization. Anyone know anything about this?

CFLarsen · 15th July 2006, 11:38 AM

Quote:

They were told in advance that, if they had not heard from the experimenter by five minutes before the trial time, they had not been chosen and should carry on with whatever they were doing and not think about the participant.
Source

How are they going to stop doing that?

"Don't think of an elephant".

Soapy Sam · 15th July 2006, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by CFLarsen

How are they going to stop doing that?

"Don't think of an elephant".

Will you stop that? I was nearly asleep...

I recall Paul and others doing an online experiment into Sheldrakes claims about telephone telepathy. I hadn't realised he extended it to email.

I can certainly tell who I'm going to get emails from, as there are only about six folk who ever bother. (Not including Betty Stroker, Dick Grower, V Agra, and several HotSchoolGirls). I replied to the last suggesting they contact the education authority about fixing the air conditioning, but I have had no reply.

CFLarsen · 15th July 2006, 02:27 PM

It just gets worse...

Quote:

In cases where e-mail addresses were web-based (as, for example, in hotmail.corn), the "time sent" was derived from a clock on the web site and was therefore already set to the correct time.

What an ignoramus. The clock on the web site is not the same as the mail server clock.

The whole experiment is riddled with this clock-mess: There is not one Master Clock to keep track of time, but many.

"A man with one watch knows what the time is. A man with two watches can never be sure".
Danish proverb.

RichardR · 15th July 2006, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by CFLarsen

"A man with one watch knows what the time is. A man with two watches can never be sure".
Danish proverb.

I guess it reads better in the original Danish?

CFLarsen · 15th July 2006, 11:51 PM

"En mand med et ur ved hvad klokken er. En mand med to ure kan aldrig være helt sikker".

Yep. It does!

Ririon · 16th July 2006, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by CFLarsen

"En mand med et ur ved hvad klokken er. En mand med to ure kan aldrig være helt sikker".

Yep. It does!

http://da.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquo...ter_i_november

Albert was Danish?

Or is it "Segal's Law"?

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Segal's_Law

Does that mean that Segal-san was Danish, too?

15th July 2006, 10:58 AM	#1
RichardR Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 2,281	Sheldrake's email telepathy Anyone have a view on Sheldrake's experiments on psi and emails? Apparently people can guess who is going to email them, greater than chance: Quote: SUMMARY This study investigated possible telepathic communication in connection with e-mails. On each trial, there were four potential e-mailers, one of whom was selected at random by the experimenter. One minute before a prearranged time at which the e-mail was to be sent, the participant guessed who would send it. 50 participants (29 women and 21 men) were recruited through an employment web site. Of 552 trials, 235 (43%) guesses were hits, significantly above the chance expectation of 25%. Further tests with 5 participants (4 women, 1 man, ages 16 to 29) were videotaped continuously. On the filmed trials, the 64 hits of 137 (47%) were significantly above chance. As I recall, his experiments on staring were criticized for poor randomization. Anyone know anything about this?
RichardR Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 2,281	__________________ Read: Skeptico - Critical thinking for an irrational world

15th July 2006, 11:38 AM	#2
CFLarsen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 42,804	Quote: They were told in advance that, if they had not heard from the experimenter by five minutes before the trial time, they had not been chosen and should carry on with whatever they were doing and not think about the participant. Source How are they going to stop doing that? "Don't think of an elephant".
	__________________ SkepticReport.com

15th July 2006, 02:12 PM	#3
Soapy Sam NLH Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 25,885	Originally Posted by CFLarsen How are they going to stop doing that? "Don't think of an elephant". Will you stop that? I was nearly asleep... I recall Paul and others doing an online experiment into Sheldrakes claims about telephone telepathy. I hadn't realised he extended it to email. I can certainly tell who I'm going to get emails from, as there are only about six folk who ever bother. (Not including Betty Stroker, Dick Grower, V Agra, and several HotSchoolGirls). I replied to the last suggesting they contact the education authority about fixing the air conditioning, but I have had no reply.
Soapy Sam NLH Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 25,885

15th July 2006, 02:27 PM	#4
CFLarsen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 42,804	It just gets worse... Quote: In cases where e-mail addresses were web-based (as, for example, in hotmail.corn), the "time sent" was derived from a clock on the web site and was therefore already set to the correct time. What an ignoramus. The clock on the web site is not the same as the mail server clock. The whole experiment is riddled with this clock-mess: There is not one Master Clock to keep track of time, but many. "A man with one watch knows what the time is. A man with two watches can never be sure". Danish proverb.
	__________________ SkepticReport.com

15th July 2006, 11:00 PM	#5
RichardR Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 2,281	Originally Posted by CFLarsen "A man with one watch knows what the time is. A man with two watches can never be sure". Danish proverb. I guess it reads better in the original Danish?
RichardR Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 2,281	__________________ Read: Skeptico - Critical thinking for an irrational world

15th July 2006, 11:51 PM	#6
CFLarsen Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 42,804	"En mand med et ur ved hvad klokken er. En mand med to ure kan aldrig være helt sikker". Yep. It does!
	__________________ SkepticReport.com

16th July 2006, 07:19 AM	#7
Ririon Cool cat Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Trondheim, Norway Posts: 2,063	Originally Posted by CFLarsen "En mand med et ur ved hvad klokken er. En mand med to ure kan aldrig være helt sikker". Yep. It does! http://da.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquo...ter_i_november Albert was Danish? Or is it "Segal's Law"? http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Segal's_Law Does that mean that Segal-san was Danish, too?
	__________________ Engineer by day, scientist by night.