An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning
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Plain English Summary
When the CIA asked a statistician to review twenty years of government-funded psychic spying research, the results were striking. Across over 1,200 remote viewing sessions at two labs, people consistently scored well above chance at describing distant targets they couldn't see. Experienced viewers hit especially impressive numbers, and four independent labs all landed in the same success range. The kicker? Even the assigned skeptic agreed the statistics were solid -- they just disagreed about what the numbers meant. Utts concluded psychic ability meets the same evidence bar we'd accept for anything else, and it was time to ask "how does it work?"
Research Notes
The official statistical evaluation of the Stargate program, paired with Ray Hyman's skeptical companion report. Their agreement on the statistics but disagreement on interpretation defines the modern evidential debate around remote viewing. A landmark document in the parapsychology literature.
Commissioned by the CIA at Congress's request, this systematic statistical review examines two decades of government-sponsored remote viewing research at SRI International (1973-1989) and SAIC (1990-1995). Across 770 SRI sessions (effect size 0.209) and 445 SAIC sessions (effect size 0.230), anomalous cognition exceeded chance with remarkable consistency. Expert viewers replicated effect sizes of ~0.35 across institutions and years. Independent ganzfeld replications at four laboratories yielded consistent 32-37% hit rates against 25% chance. Utts concludes that psychic functioning is well established by standard scientific criteria and recommends redirecting resources from proof-oriented experiments toward understanding the underlying mechanism.
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- Psychophysical Modulation of Fringe Visibility in a Distant Double-Slit Optical System — Radin, Dean (2016)
- Explicit Anomalous Cognition: A Review of the Best Evidence in Ganzfeld, Forced-choice, Remote Viewing and Dream Studies — Baptista, Johann (2015)
- Remote Viewing as Applied to Futures Studies — Lee, James H (2008)
- The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review — Cardeña, Etzel (2018)
- Parapsychological Phenomena as Examples of Generalized Nonlocal Correlations—A Theoretical Framework — Walach, Harald (2014)
- Appreciating Statistics — Utts, Jessica (2016)
- The Capricious, Actively Evasive, Unsustainable Nature of Psi: A Summary and Hypotheses — Kennedy, J.E (2003)
- Anomalous Cognition: An Umbrella Review of the Meta-Analytic Evidence — Tressoldi, Patrizio (2021)
- Apparent Association Between Effect Size in Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments and Local Sidereal Time — Spottiswoode, S. James P (1997)
Cites
- Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer — Bem, Daryl J (1994)
- A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research — Puthoff, Harold E (1976)
- Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding — Targ, Russell (1974)
Also by these authors
We Did See This Coming: Response to 'We Should Have Seen This Coming' by D. Sam Schwarzkopf
Predicting the Unpredictable: Critical Analysis and Practical Implications of Predictive Anticipatory Activity
Predictive Physiological Anticipation Preceding Seemingly Unpredictable Stimuli: A Meta-Analysis
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Exploring the Correlates and Nature of Subjective Anomalous Interactions with Objects (Psychometry): A Mixed Methods Survey
The Location and Reconstruction of a Byzantine Structure in Marea, Egypt, Including a Comparison of Electronic Remote Sensing and Remote Viewing
Greg Kolodziejzyk's 13-Year Associative Remote Viewing Experiment Results
Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence: The Case of Non-Local Perception, a Classical and Bayesian Review of Evidences
Information and Uncertainty in Remote Perception Research
📋 Cite this paper
Utts, Jessica (1996). An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning. Journal of Scientific Exploration.
@article{utts_1996_assessment,
title = {An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning},
author = {Utts, Jessica},
year = {1996},
journal = {Journal of Scientific Exploration},
}