| Abstract/Results: | ABSTRACT:
Ganzfeld stimulation is associated with an increase in attention to internal imagery. Investigators have suggested the association with a view to developing an “experimental hypnagogic” technique in order to facilitate the study of hypnagogic imagery. The present experiment uses a telepathy-focused, non-ganzfeld condition, the findings of which were compared to the ganzfeld technique, in counter-balanced order. One hundred and thirty-eight participants attended two GESP trials at the Institute for Paranormal Psychology, in Buenos Aires. The majority of the participants (93.5%) reported previous personal experiences suggestive of psi. The first author was the experimenter and the second author was the sender for the entire sample. Two questionnaires were administered before, and one after, the ganzfeld session, to evaluate mental activity, bodily changes, pleasant experiences, and change in state of awareness. A CD-R containing 3,500 high-resolution colour pictures was used to provide image-targets. We would conclude that this experiment offered some support to the claim that ganzfeld stimulation is psi-conducive, to the extent that there was a significant difference between the two test conditions, in a direction favouring the ganzfeld condition. Expected percentage of hits was 25%. The ganzfeld gave 41.3% hits, p < .001, the non-ganzfeld 27.5%, and the difference between the two conditions was also significant, p = .016. No relationship was found between prior psi experiences and ESP scores. Nevertheless, we did not conclude that the “good” ESP results using ganzfeld were related to a modified state of consciousness because these results might depend upon other variables independent of the non-ordinary state.
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