Consciousness Interactions with Remote Biological Systems: Anomalous Intentionality Effects
📄 Original study📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
This is the big one — a 13-year summary asking whether the mind can directly affect living things at a distance. Across 37 experiments, influencers mentally targeted a wild variety of biological systems from separate rooms: skin conductance, blood pressure, muscle tremors, fish swimming direction, gerbil activity, and red blood cell breakdown. Twenty-one of 37 experiments were individually significant — 57% versus 5% expected by luck — and the combined odds against chance were in the trillions. They introduced the "lability hypothesis," suggesting systems that naturally fluctuate are easier to influence mentally. Framed as a laboratory model for mental healing, this became a foundational reference in the field.
Research Notes
Foundational DMILS compendium — the most comprehensive source for Braud & Schlitz's bio-PK program at the Mind Science Foundation. Central to the distant healing and staring detection debates. Later meta-analyzed by Schmidt et al. (2004) and Roe et al. (2015). Introduced the lability hypothesis for target susceptibility.
Summarizes a 13-year research program (37 experiments, 655 sessions) investigating direct mental influence of living systems (DMILS). Influencers attempted to mentally affect remote biological targets — including human electrodermal activity, blood pressure, muscular tremor, fish orientation, gerbil locomotion, and red blood cell hemolysis — while isolated in separate rooms with randomized influence/non-influence epochs. Twenty-one of 37 experiments reached individual significance (57% vs. 5% by chance). The overall Stouffer z = 7.72 (p = 2.58 × 10⁻¹⁴) with mean effect size r = .33 across all systems. Additional studies showed electrodermal correlates of remote attention (staring detection). Results are interpreted as laboratory analogs of mental healing.
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Same Research Program
Extended By
- Experimenter Effects and the Remote Detection of Staring — Wiseman, Richard (1997)
- Distant Healing of Surgical Wounds: An Exploratory Study — Schlitz, Marilyn (2012)
- Effects of Healing Intention on Cultured Cells and Truly Random Events — Radin, Dean (2004)
- Evidence for Correlations Between Distant Intentionality and Brain Function in Recipients: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis — Achterberg, J (2005)
- Compassionate Intention as a Therapeutic Intervention by Partners of Cancer Patients: Effects of Distant Intention on the Patients’ Autonomic Nervous System — Radin, Dean (2008)
Cited By
- Unconscious Perception of Future Emotions: An Experiment in Presentiment — Radin, Dean I (1997)
- A Compendium of the Evidence for Psi — Parker, Adrian (2003)
- Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Going Beyond Even Meta-Analysis of Distant Intention Effects — Bengston, William F (2012)
- Can We Help Just by Good Intentions? A Meta-Analysis of Experiments on Distant Intention Effects — Schmidt, Stefan (2012)
- The Sense of Being Stared At: A Preliminary Meta-Analysis — Radin, Dean I (2005)
Meta Analyzed By
- Distant intentionality and the feeling of being stared at: Two meta-analyses — Schmidt, Stefan (2004)
- Can We Help Just by Good Intentions? A Meta-Analysis of Experiments on Distant Intention Effects — Schmidt, Stefan (2012)
- Two Meta-Analyses of Noncontact Healing Studies — Roe, Chris A (2015)
- The Sense of Being Stared At: A Preliminary Meta-Analysis — Radin, Dean I (2005)
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📋 Cite this paper
Braud, William G, Schlitz, Marilyn J (1991). Consciousness Interactions with Remote Biological Systems: Anomalous Intentionality Effects. Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine.
@article{braud_schlitz_1991_consciousness_interactions,
title = {Consciousness Interactions with Remote Biological Systems: Anomalous Intentionality Effects},
author = {Braud, William G and Schlitz, Marilyn J},
year = {1991},
journal = {Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine},
}