Re: Phase Experiments: Testing ESP

[Summerlander]

It goes without saying, for any phase practitioner, that a dream world can get things wrong when one tries to find out information about the real world. 

For example, you may wish to visit your neighbour's house in the phase and describe what you saw in your journal only to discover that it doesn't tally with reality when you actually do enter your neighbour's house for the first time.

In fact, even the things that you are aware of existing in the real world can be missing or be altered in the phase - and you only have to separate from your body and go as far as the confines of your bedroom or house to confirm this.  It is patently obvious that, when one travels in the phase, he is travelling in the realm of the mind, and not, as it is sometimes thought when the term "out-of-body experience" is uttered, the physical world.

But what if this mind realm is not just yours?  what if it can be shared?  According to Michael Persinger, telepathy is real and is demonstrable when the conditions are favourable in the geomagnetic field.  Rupert Sheldrake spoke of "M fields" where memories are stored.  The notion that 7 billion brains on the planet are quantum entangled has been discussed too. 

However, when it comes to shared or mutual dreaming, or visiting known living people in the phase and getting hits, we have a hard time ruling out coincidence, confirmation bias, and, in some cases, even the subconscious mind.

So, which is it?  Is it all just your own private world or do you get elements from other people's minds in the phase too?  Could we access global consciousness in the phase or will this only be possible with revolutionary technology that will make a "Mindnet" possible in the near future?  The latter is suggested here: http://obe4u.com/?page_id=16

I propose the following tests, which, may not be conclusive, but at least the results will be suggestive as we will be able to make observations...

EXPERIMENT 1 - "Deck of Cards"

A) Testing the idea of ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) in the phase

Your partner, family member, friend or an acquaintance (assistant) shuffles a deck of cards and looks at the top one.  You do not see this card.  Enter the phase and check the top card.  Number of trials: 20

Answer these questions after each trial is completed and work out percentages for them at the end:

Did the card match? Yes/No
Did the suit match? Yes/No
Did the number/character match? Yes/No

B) Testing the idea that the phase is solely governed by the subconscious mind:

Perform the experiment with the deck of cards again but this time you shuffle after briefly looking at the order in which the cards were in.  Observe yourself shuffling the cards.  Your assistant can confirm the top card after you've had an experience to see if it matches what you observed in the phase.  Number of trials: 20

EXPERIMENT 2 - "Two Brains in the Phase state"

A) Two brains in the phase state, at the same time, and as close to each other as possible (if possible, there is physical contact between both heads).  Any method for entering the phase is applicable.  Either both subjects wake up at the sound of the alarm and then attempt to enter the phase at the same time, or, they can use the dream consciousness method with perhaps the aid of Stephen LaBerge's NovaDreamer for phase state sychronicity.  Attempt communication in the phase and compare experiences.  Number of trials: 20

B)  Repeat the experiment but this time both subjects can be in separate rooms or even in separate locations miles apart.  Attempt communication in the phase and compare experiences.  Number of trials: 20

Example of recording Experiment 1A's first trial:

Experiment 1A: 1st trial (11/06/12)

Stacey shuffled the cards before bedtime and saw that the top card was the six of clubs.  She made sure I didn't see the card.  She placed the deck on the chest of drawers on top of my journal.  I entered the phase with the test in mind as a plan of action.  In the morning, Stacey couldn't remember the card she had picked but luckily enough she had recorded it on her mobile phone.

Results:

Card match? No
Suit match? Yes
Number/character match? No

Brief description of phase experience:

In the morning, I entered the phase using the indirect method.  I realised the indirect method had worked when I saw that the chest of drawers was dark and bigger than it should be.  As I deepened the phase, I noticed that the Sky box and my dream journal were missing but a funny-looking deck of cards, twice the size of the real ones, were present.  I picked up the top one and saw that it was the king of clubs.  Then, I flew out of the house in great exhilaration, all the while verbally repeating the card to myself to make sure I didn't forget prior to a foul.

Yes, I've already started.  You guys can dedicate some of your phase experiences on these tests too.  It can be great fun.  In fact, you can formulate your own experiments.  Good luck and have fun!! 

[breadbassed]

I've tried the card one but in a slightly different manner.  I shuffled them and put one on a hight shelf out of my sight and made sure i didn't look at it, that would be pointless.

After a phase entering i looked at and remembered the card.  The longer i looked at it, it started to change. So i went with what i first saw. When i awoke and checked it out, i got the number right (8) but the suite wrong.

[Summerlander]

Yes, the longer you look at objects the chances are that they will start to change.  As soon as I saw my card I just let go of it and flew away.  It's funny, but, if I'd got the number right, instead, I would have found it more significant!  Funny how we tend to assign more meaning to some things and not others.

Still, perhaps there is a substratum of truth in ESP when it comes to the phase.  Imagine a scenario where Mr. Persinger is right.  You are in the phase and you are trying to attain information you are not privy to.  You would unravel the truth about what is actual with your psychic powers every time you entered the phase were it not for the fact that the geomagnetic field is often disturbed by radiation.

In theory, you got the number right because that is the only thing you could see clearly but the suit aspect could not be detected so your mind just filled in that gap with something nearest to the preconscious.

What do you think about this theory?

[breadbassed]

Its interesting, i can kind of understand how the geomagnetic field and radiation may interfere, but i guess that could be hard to prove.

I would definitely assume that my mind filled in the gaps, but its hard to tell if it was just luck or not.  It seems if we both have a degree of accuracy there may be more to it than luck.  I have done a couple of other experiments with varying results, but fairly inconclusive.  Once i got my sister to write down a 3 or 4 digit number and put it in her room.  Once in the phase i tried to view it.  I remember the numbers kept changing, but the first one i saw was 9, the others i couldn't decipher.  9 was one of the numbers she wrote, but there's a 1 in 10 chance of getting that right anyway!

Have you read Robert Monroe's 'Journeys Out of the Body'?  He provides some compelling evidence towards this theory, and others.

[Summerlander]

Experiments with numbers are interesting too!  Yes, I've read Monroe's first book.  It was an excellent read.  I like his initial approach there.  Very honest, somewhat naive, but open-minded about possibilities.  What he has claimed intrigues me.

He also suggested visits to an antimatter universe in his Locale III.  Interesting theory.  There is another book you might also like by Rick Strassman.  It's DMT, The Spirit Molecule.  During a DMT study, his subjects reported phase-like experiences where alien beings and archetypal figures were met...

While he approached these experiences from a psychological point of view in that they were somewhat reflecting the state of mind of individuals, he also considered the possibility that, apart from being personal they may have a reality of their own.  A little theoretical physics is thrown in there as he talks about WIMPs and the possibility of dark matter worlds flowing through us - this is where the pineal gland would act like a radio detecting the frequencies.

Anyway, cool stuff.

EDIT:

Experiment 1A: 2nd trial (21/06/12)

It is worth mentioning that a couple of days ago Stacey shuffled the cards and saw that the top one was the nine of spades (you will see why this is relevant in supporting the subconscious influence notion).  By accident, I saw the card too when I moved them and Stacey had to reshuffle the deck.  By the time she was done, I couldn’t even remember the card that I’d seen previously by accident.  This time, the top card was the four of hearts and she placed the deck in the same place.  I stayed away!  I entered the phase using the deferred method.  In the morning, upon returning from the phase, I checked the top card and also checked the second one (which was the king of spades - and I thought of the card I had seen in the phase in my first trial).

Results:

Card match? No
Suit match? No
Number/character match? No

Brief description of phase experience:

After using the toilet at 4am, I went back to bed and succeeded in entering the phase.  I separated from my physical body stencil and rubbed my hands together to make the surroundings as vivid as possible.  After achieving hyperrealism, I glided into the hallway and saw two mirrors instead of one.  My reflection had a life of its own as it paced up and down from one mirror to the next.  I remembered the experiment and immediately went back to my room to see that there was a large deck of cards on the chest of drawers.  The top card was the eight of spades which quickly turned into a nine.  Curious, I also decided to check the second card which was the ace of clubs.  I decided to explore the phase world while verbally repeating the cards I had seen aloud.  I saw a brown rugged carpet covering the stairs and extending all the way to the front door downstairs.  I slid down the carpet and pushed the front door open (not even bothering to close it behind me as I told myself that it was all a dream).  I flew and landed on the roof of a bus stop to watch many people walk along a promenade.  A malicious old man looked up at me and said he was going to get me.  I ignored this and leapt over a wall to land on a long escalator that led to a huge shopping mall.  I looked at the floor and found glass bottles which I then proceeded to smash and admired the realistic effect.  I fouled and woke up refreshed.

[breadbassed]

Yeah i have read the DMT book, found it very interesting.

If what Robert Monroe says about different 'locales' or 'focuses' is true, then perhaps depending on how deep in the phase you are, it may or may not make it more difficult to 'sense' things that are in the real world.  How on earth one tells what locale they are in im not sure.  I can only think of one experience of my own that might have related to locale I, and it only lasted while i was still in my body (but had my eyes closed), everything was more real than any other phase experience i have had (I could 'see' my room), as real as waking life, and i had 100% consciousness (normally in phase experience it seems like im aware, but not 'all there').  As soon as i got out of body i was in total blackness, which confused me slightly.  I then felt dizzy and felt a sensation of being pulled backwards, then i awoke.  All my other phase experiences i would put into other locales.

[Summerlander]

There is more to come on these experiments!  More intriguing observations!  Meanwhile, this morning I reached sleep paralysis and could hear one of Michael Jackson's songs blaring out throughout the house.

I thought to myself "what has Stacey done?  Has she gone nuts and decided to play music on the stereo at max volume?"

Then, I realised that I was in sleep paralysis and the music was phase-related.  I got up and walked around in a pitch black spatiality.  I rubbed my hands together and blew on them to bring about vision but it didn't work.  I feared a foul and that is exactly what happened.

I told my wife about this experience and how puzzling it was that I heard Michael Jackson music... seems so random especially when I have not thought about it.  She was flabbergasted when I mentioned Michael Jackson as today is the anniversary of his death (I wasn't even aware of this) and what's more, she had been thinking about this recently!

Telepathy?  Maybe.  Subconscious at play?  Quite probable!  Even though I didn't remember the date, it was certainly there in my subconscious...

Then, we have global consciousness theory.  Michael Jackson had a major impact on everyone and today of all days, his "spirit" may rage wildly in the minds of billions...

[breadbassed]

That is quite an interesting experience. I imagine on some level you did know that it was the anniversary, even if not on a conscious one. Perhaps there were a lot of people paying tribute to him and somehow while in SP you 'picked up' on this and it was portrayed in the manner of one of his songs being played.

It reminds me of a strange experience i had when i was younger.

I used to sleep in the car all the time, and one day i remember being 'half awake' and hearing on the radio that some TV presenter had died, i thought to myself "thats a shame" and went back to sleep.

It wasn't till a few days later that i was in the kitchen with some family members and i heard the announcement once again, i was slightly baffled and remember saying to my mum something like "didn't he die last week?", and she told me that he had only died today!

This was confusing because i know i had heard that announcement in the car days earlier. 

I don't necessarily believe you can tell the future, but if the presenter had fallen ill previously and was inevitably going to die soon anyway, there is no reason that i couldn't have 'picked up' on this. Why? I don't know!

[stewartannie]

I never heard any such experience from any one, not even imagined. How many phases has completed till now?

[Summerlander]

Experiment 1A: 4th trial (25/10/12)

This time the top card was the ace of clubs.  As usual, Stacey was the only person who had seen it prior to my related telepathy-testing phase experience.  I also entered the phase after lying down on the living room sofa - which is unusual for me.  Stacey napped nearby but she did not enter the phase.  She was merely dreaming at the time.  I used the deferred indirect method to reach the state with the plan to carry out the experiment firmly in mind.

Results:

Card match? No
Suit match? Yes
Number/character match? No

Brief description of phase experience:

After having a dream about parcels being delivered to my house, I caught an awakening without physical movement and was able to enter the phase (for details see “Reality Makersâ€

[Summerlander]

Experiment 1A: 5th trial (06/05/13)

The top card had been picked by Stacey a couple of months prior to this experience. She had forgotten that it was the Four of Hearts. I become conscious while dreaming of being in a tunnel about to be inundated by clear water (dream theme: deluge). Subsequently, I perceived myself to be lying in bed and in sleep paralysis. I amplified a cacophony of sounds in my head and separated from my body, subsequently succeeding in doing a card trial. It is worth mentioning that, after my phase experience and prior to checking the top card in the real world, I had a dream where two couples made love in separate rooms - an intriguing juicy detail that people can associate with the real top card (Four of Hearts) and deem the experience as precognitive of telepathic. The association, however, comes after the (confirmed) fact, coincidence cannot be ruled out, and, the seemingly psychic experience was a product of an ordinary dream state - not the phase state.

Results:

Card match? No
Suit match? No
Number/character match? No

Brief description of phase experience:

After having separated from the body I was blind and started deepening the phase. I dimly made out the lucent silhouette of a window in my visually tenebrous condition. I jumped out of it, confident of being in the phase and not real world, and started flying. I hovered, half-blindly, above roofs and palpated my legs and feet in order to bring about more depth. Deepening in midair caused me to somersault uncontrollably so I decided to land somewhere. I landed in front of my house (or something like it) and vision blossomed out into full clarity. That’s when I remembered to do a card trial. I rushed towards my house, pushed the front door open, and dash up the stairs into my bedroom (I don’t know why I didn’t just translocate there or manifest a card in my hands). I spotted a deck of cards on a bedside cabinet and picked up the top one. It turned out to be a peculiar depiction of the Jack of Spades which quickly turned into a picture of Mauricio de Sousa’s Chuck Billy, a much loved cartoon character during my childhood. I willingly fouled and jotted down the experience before going back to sleep.

[White Mist]

What about we are all sharing a dream right now???

[Summerlander]

You mean like in The Matrix? Some sort of Mindnet?

[digitalvygr]

Very interesting experiment you are doing Summerlander! And it is a testament to your prowess with the phase, as a newbie I am just happy to get in the phase even once a week... much less doing such experiments on demand.

I did think however that maybe if you changed your test criteria to include larger verifiables, that maybe your results would be better? It is my understanding that reading small text in the phase is next to impossible, and I would imagine the effects scale as you go up, so that reading cards is possible but less reliable than perhaps other larger things would be to confirm.

Another reason I put this forward has to do with my first phase experience. I had taken a 2 hour class on the Phase and did not plan to practice just 2 nights later, but happened to wake up naturally and tried some techniques and managed to pop into the phase on my first ever attempt. Long story short I kind of drifted aimlessly face down around my apartment with no POA other than remembering that maybe I could walk through walls. I tried and wound up in the neighbor's apartment. I saw a kitchen to my left, a living room directly in front of me, then a bedroom annexed directly to the back left of the living room. Light was streaming out and this frightened me, at that point I hadnt read the book and it felt quite real, I felt like an intruder, so I left and fouled in the process.

The next few days it was all I could think about, and I wound up going on a local website that had floorplans for our building. Of the parts of their apartment I got to see, the floorplan was exact except for one detail. The kitchen I saw was the same size and shape, but I saw two walls on each side, whereas in the floor plan one side was one of those kitchen islands with a sink and counter space. I would love to see in their apartment someday, because I also know that other units in this building have kitchens like what I saw with 2 walls, and perhaps the floor plan got changed in actual construction, etc.

So maybe you can have someone vary placement and orientation of a whole chest of drawers, etc. Might be more work, but also possibly more accurate? Admittedly my experience is a very small sample size, so really just thinking out loud here... regardless looking forward to seeing how your future attempts pan out!

[Summerlander]

Very interesting experiment you are doing Summerlander! And it is a testament to your prowess with the phase, as a newbie I am just happy to get in the phase even once a week... much less doing such experiments on demand.

Trust me, I have my moments when I enter the phase and think, "Sod the experiment, I want to have fun while I'm here."

I did think however that maybe if you changed your test criteria to include larger verifiables, that maybe your results would be better? It is my understanding that reading small text in the phase is next to impossible, and I would imagine the effects scale as you go up, so that reading cards is possible but less reliable than perhaps other larger things would be to confirm.

Often, the cards I encounter in the phase are larger than the ones I have in the real world (size, another thing that the phase gets wrong and most likely due to the fact that I wish to see things clearly), but I see what you mean. We can always find ways to expand upon this experiment and work out ways around problems encountered in the phase.

Another reason I put this forward has to do with my first phase experience. I had taken a 2 hour class on the Phase and did not plan to practice just 2 nights later, but happened to wake up naturally and tried some techniques and managed to pop into the phase on my first ever attempt. Long story short I kind of drifted aimlessly face down around my apartment with no POA other than remembering that maybe I could walk through walls. I tried and wound up in the neighbor's apartment. I saw a kitchen to my left, a living room directly in front of me, then a bedroom annexed directly to the back left of the living room. Light was streaming out and this frightened me, at that point I hadnt read the book and it felt quite real, I felt like an intruder, so I left and fouled in the process.

I've done this before as a novice and hadn't read the guidebook either. I felt guilty too as I thought that I had really exited my physical body to spy on the neighbours. Further out-of-body travels proved that what I was exploring was not the physical world. The suspicion that not everything was in my mind lingered though.

The next few days it was all I could think about, and I wound up going on a local website that had floorplans for our building. Of the parts of their apartment I got to see, the floorplan was exact except for one detail. The kitchen I saw was the same size and shape, but I saw two walls on each side, whereas in the floor plan one side was one of those kitchen islands with a sink and counter space. I would love to see in their apartment someday, because I also know that other units in this building have kitchens like what I saw with 2 walls, and perhaps the floor plan got changed in actual construction, etc.

See? And then what is one to think when even in the 19th century, a gentlemen called Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was inducing the phase state and doing experiments that pretty much showed how much dream content relates to waking life memory. A lot of what you see can be traced back to what you have been already exposed to and not as revelatory as it seems. Marquis even discovered that even the nightmarish monsters he had once seen in one of his nightly excursions could be traced to gothic bas-reliefs he had seen on the side of a cathedral.

So maybe you can have someone vary placement and orientation of a whole chest of drawers, etc. Might be more work, but also possibly more accurate? Admittedly my experience is a very small sample size, so really just thinking out loud here... regardless looking forward to seeing how your future attempts pan out!

Admittedly, my experiment is not big enough to rule out coincidence - for this, an inordinate number of trials would be required. In saying this, the randomness that could be at play can also be surprisingly repetitive in terms of what is revealed. (Hence the reason why electronic machines are required to produce sequences of numbers that can be called random in the sense that they cannot be predicted by the human mind and why people are not trusted to write random sequences down.)

At the same time we don't want to simplify the experiment too much to the point of reducing the number of variables. The more variables the better. Perhaps there is something else besides cards and furniture. A roulette machine, perhaps. I will keep everyone updated about my results. So far, I feel like a gambler getting nowhere (not a single card has been right and it appears to me that the phase really is far removed from what we don't know about in the real world).

[digitalvygr]

Have to admit that with that many variables if you do start hitting the cards and suits reliably it would be quite amazing. Regardless, will watch how it unfolds, very interesting. Off to go research a bit about this Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys person...

[Summerlander]

Experiment 1A: 7th trial (24/12/13)

After a few games of Go Fish with our kids, Stacey gave the deck a good shuffle and put it away ready for the next trial. The top card was the Queen of Spades. I entered the phase via dream consciousness after dreaming about a party. In the dream, I had decided to catch a bus home and realised that I was travelling through unfamiliar territory and towards an airport. When it dawned on me that I was dreaming, I strongly desired to crash airplanes over the dream city. Subsequently, I awoke to use the loo before returning to bed. The card trial was performed during lucid hypnagogia.

Results:

Card match? No
Suit match? Yes
Number/character match? No

Brief description of phase experience (LD/OBE/AP):

The bus travelled through unfamiliar territory and I realised that everything was a dream. There was an airport ahead and I felt like crashing aeroplanes over the city. Suddenly, pocket-sized aircraft lunged in my direction from the night sky. I dodged a few and managed to grab one. I flew high enough to see the entire brilliantly lit airport and hurled the tiny plane towards it. A small orange explosion was observed but there was no damage to the airport building. I entered the building for a little exploration and deepening by palpating objects. There was a brief pause for internal dialogue where I said to myself, “What do I do next? I know! I’m going to look for huge aeroplanes in the sky and crash them over the city.” I exited the airport by pushing one of the panes of a glass wall, which detached easily from the overall structure. As I glided skywards, I scanned the heavens for aircraft. Gradually, I fouled and didn’t feel like doing anything to avert the end of the phase state. After using the loo I returned to bed. Soon, I was beholding hypnagogic imagery and recalled having planned to do a card trial next time I entered the phase. (Note how the experiment was remembered during hypnagogia rather than the preceding waking state respite.) Unexpectedly, I saw an Ace of Spades in my line of vision before falling asleep.