Between January 2010 and May 2010, PSICAN ran an "open to the public" Remote Viewing experiment... where we asked people to give remote viewing their best shot.
What Is Remote Viewing?
As defined by Paul H. Smith: "Remote viewing (RV) is a skill by which a person (a "viewer") can perceive objects, persons, or events at a location removed from him or her by either space or time. In other words, one does not actually have to be there, nor does one need any so-called "physical" connections, such as television, telephone, etc., to gain information about the target. RV exploits and improves upon what is more commonly called "psychic" ability (an overused word that has accrued unfortunate connotations), and works whether the target is in the next room or on the other side of the planet. Neither time nor any known type of shielding can prevent a properly-trained remote viewer from gaining access to the desired target."
While Remote Viewing can trace it's origins back to ancient times, it was during the 1960's through 70's that RV experiments were being conducted by both the US government and civilian research organizations such as the ASPR. These studies provided fascinating results despite the CIA having released in 1995 a research report stating that RV was not an effective intelligence gathering tool.
PSICAN's 2010 Remote Viewing Experiment Completed:
As this experiment was internet-based it was for obvious reasons not following the strictest of scientific-based protocol. However, we do feel that it did provide some interesting information, and will be useful in determining whether or not we shall be pursuing even more (and perhaps far more scientifically-rigorous) experiments in the future.
The experiment followed the "coordinate remote viewing method" or CRV. The envelope we are using, (a standard white mailing envelope 24cm x 10.5 cm -or- 9 1/2" x 4") was given the target # 40728 (as determined through a random number generator... see below...) which was written in black marker on the front...
A photograph with the envelope before placing in the contents is below...
The contents were one clipped black and white photo of a "Life Brand" Blood Pressure Monitoring device... (Seen below...)
The picture was clipped from the manual (see below)...
...and for those interested, here's the unit itself...
The photo (not the unit or the whole manual) was inserted in the envelope, sealed with the seal signed by PSICAN director Matthew Didier in red marker to ensure it is not tampered with...
The envelope was then placed in a secure location at a warehouse in the former city of Scarborough, Ontario, (now just Toronto,) at geographical coordinates 43° 46' 60 North and 79° 15' 0 West.
People then used a form to tell us what they "saw" in the envelope...
Conclusions: There were a total of 112 participants in this online experiment. The ratio between male and female participants was fairly evenly split with 52 females, and 56 males, and 4 who did not identify their gender.The average age range indicated for participants was 36-45. Forty one of the participants indicated that they had tried remote viewing before, 3 did not not answer, and the remainder 68 stated they had done no remote viewing prior to this experiment. Thirty two of the participants identified themselves as being psychic, 29 indicated maybe, 48 stated they did not believe they had psychic abilities, and three did not answer this question.
The most significant submission we received was from a male participant in the Toronto area who indicated that he may be psychic, and has attempted remote viewing prior to this online experiment. His answer being "pressure" and "medulla oblongata" the latter being the lower half of the brain stem, which contains the cardiac, respiratory, vomiting and vasomotor centers and deals with autonomic functions, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
Another male participant from Alberta who also indicated the possibility of psychic abilities, and previous remote viewing work included heart in his response to what was inside the envelope.
Four of the participants indicated a triangle shape, which may have some significance as there is a triangular shape on the front of the unit, and was clearly visible in the picture used.
Of interest, but not significant to the contents of the envelope are the following:
10 participants indicated some type of ticket
10 participants indicated a key or a picture of a key
7 participants indicated money, specifically paper money
4 participants thought we may have pulled a fast one and the envelope was empty
2 participants indicated a playing card in a red suit
As always with these types of experiments, there are now follow-up and other bits of research to work on, and there's no doubt we will revisit this in the future, but for now to everyone who helped us out by answering the call to do the experiment THANK YOU! as every piece of data to these puzzles is a big help!
Note: Early on in the experiment we received a note from James Cann who runs PSINation.org, and has much knowledge and experience as an RV target manager. He felt that this experiment's conclusions would be debatable because too much information given on the initial experiment page may have interfered with the participants ability to remote view correctly, and that only a target number with no further information, nor images should have been made available. We thank James for taking the time to contact us, and sharing his expertise with us as it is very much appreciated. We will keep this in mind for any future PSICAN RV experiments.
