1974 | Information Transmission Under Conditions of Sensory Shielding

Investigated the abilities of an S (Uri Geller) to reproduce target pictures while he was located in an electrically shielded room. Double-blind experiments were performed to examine another S’s (P. Price) ability to describe remote outdoor scenes many miles from his physical location. Finally, preliminary tests using EEGs were conducted with 6 Ss to investigate whether Ss could perceive a remote light flashing and to determine whether an S could perceive the presence of the light, even if only at a noncognitive level. Based on results of all of the experiments, it is concluded that a channel exists whereby information about a remote location can be obtained by means of an as yet unidentified perceptual modality; as with all biological systems, the information channel appears to be imperfect, containing noise along with the signal; and while a quantitative signal-to-noise ratio in the information-theoretical sense cannot as yet be determined, the results indicate the function is at the level of useful information transfer.

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