Is there a Scientific Basis for Believing in Remote Viewing?

[Murky]

At first glance, I thought the concept of Remote Viewing was just silly, but it seems that some people are taking it seriously.

REMOTE VIEWING WITH THE ARTIST INGO SWANN: NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE, ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC CORRELATES, MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI), AND POSSIBLE MECHANISMS

M. A.PERSINGER, W. G.ROLL, S. G.TILLER, S. A.KOREN, AND C. M.COOK

In the present study, the artist Ingo Swann, who helped develop the
process of remote viewing (awareness of distant objects or places without en~ploying
normal senses), was exposed during a single setting of 30 min. to specific patterns of
circumcerebral magnetic fields that significantly altered his subjective experiences.
Se~eralti mes during subsequent days, he was asked ro sit in a quiet chamber and to
sketch and to describe verbally distant stinluli (pictures or places) beyond his normal
senses. The proportions of unusual 7-Hz spke and slow wave activity over the occipital
lobes per trial were moderately correlated (rho= .50) with the ratings of accuracy
between chese distal, hidden stimuli and his responses. A neuropsychological assessment
and Magnetic Resonance Imaging indicated a different structural and functional
organizarion within the parieto-occipital region of the subject's right hemisphere from
organizations typically noted. The results suggest that this type of paranormal phenomenon,
often dismissed as methodological artifact or accepted as proofs of spiritual
existence, is correlated with neurophysiological processes and physical events. Remote
viewing may be enhanced by complex experimentally generated magnetic fields designed
to interact with the neuromagnetic "binding facror" of consciousness.

Read More: http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.2002.94.3.927

There is a show on National Geographic about trying to use Remote Viewing to find buried treasure.

Link to video.

So what you do think? Silly nonsense or mysterious human ability?

 

[warpus]

The study is just one guy sitting in a box, drawing stuff?

What's the point of that? If you want a real study, you need to test dozens if not hundreds of people.

 

[Murky]

The study is just one guy sitting in a box, drawing stuff?

What's the point of that? If you want a real study, you need to test dozens if not hundreds of people.

Mr. Swan is the most successful remote viewer known so that's why they studied him.

The paper is an interesting read.

If remote viewing is real what can explain it? Is there some stimuli that his brain detects better than other people?

 

[Andvare]

And yet, Mr. Randi has had a million $ sitting, waiting for someone to claim, for quite some time.

 

[Murky]

I have a great deal of respect for James Randi, but there might be some kernel of truth to remote viewing. It could be that some people pick up on cues by their test givers so they have a higher level of perception than most. Being able to exploit that could be what is really happening.

The people in the video are obviously more into the superstition side of things but it's still interesting that they were able to find a place that closely matched what the remote viewer picked up. I do think the dowsing thing is total nonsense. You won't find anything using an dowsing rod that you couldn't find with your normal senses or with technology.

 

[amadeus]

It's such bunk that even the American government stopped blowing money on it.

 

[BasketCase]

No it's not, amadeus.

It's even bigger bunk than that.

 

[Tecknojock]

And yet, Mr. Randi has had a million $ sitting, waiting for someone to claim, for quite some time.

Not anymore. He took down the prize sometime in 2010, though quite a few other prizes are available through other groups.

 

[Murky]

OK. So have several self-declared skeptics here. Get to work debunking it.

 

[amadeus]

OK. So have several self-declared skeptics here. Get to work debunking it.

Dinosaurs rig the European lottery with the aid of Hindu fundamentalists based in Guyana. Get to work disproving it.

 

[Murky]

Dinosaurs rig the European lottery with the aid of Hindu fundamentalists based in Guyana. Get to work disproving it.

Easy

Dinosaurs are extinct.
Hindus have no interests in rigging the European lottery.
Lotteries are random enough to prevent rigging.

 

[amadeus]

And here's a list of people known to possess ESP:

 

[BasketCase]

I knew you were going to post that!

 

[Polycrates]

OK. So have several self-declared skeptics here. Get to work debunking it.

I'm not at work so I can't get the full article right now. However, from the abstract:

One person does not a sample set make
Some brain activity was "moderately correlated" with accuracy; that sounds like a complete bunch of bunk to me. A "moderate correlation" in such a small sample set seems to me to be well within the bounds of coincidence - especially if you're on a fishing expedition for whatever apparent correlations you can find. I notice no P-value was given in the abstract; would I be a cynic to assume it's 0.04999?
What's with the magnetic field thing? Was there a no-magnetic-field control? In fact was there any controls whatsoever?

Additionally, and perhaps slightly unfairly:
It is from 2002. It has been cited twice (both times in the same journal)
It is in a journal with an impact factor of 0.55
These are not things that correlate with something of such profound importance to our understanding of human cognitive ability.

EDIT: I logged in and I don't have institutional access to the journal, it seems. So gonna have to go by the abstract alone.
However, it does seem that I was slightly unfair. It has been cited elsewhere, in the highly prestigious International Journal of Yoga

 

[Murky]

Ah, so nobody wants to take a real skeptical look at this? Just thought it might be a nice break from all the doom/gloom and political threads.

 

[Crezth]

And yet, Mr. Randi has had a million $ sitting, waiting for someone to claim, for quite some time.

This. If someone has ESP it is either reliable enough for Randi's tests or undetectable to the point of irrelevancy.

 

[BasketCase]

Ah, so nobody wants to take a real skeptical look at this?

No point. "Remote viewing is bunk" is sufficient. Without some form of technological device, it's not possible for a human to perceive an event that's not within line-of-sight and isn't within hearing/smelling range.

If human beings ever actually had the capacity for a "sixth sense", we would have been using it to spot predators at a distance quite a long time ago, and evolution would have developed it into something usable by now. And when playing MW3, I would be able to sense snipers before actually walking into their kill zone.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Watch Derren Brown's Messiah. Then hate him for being unable to figure out how he does it.

He admits to using tricks and I have seen him pull stuff of which would make many psychics scratch their heads. Really. Go find Messiah on youtube.

 

[Leonel]

I could possibly imagine that considering our brains run on electricity and the Earth is enveloped in an electromagnetic field of sorts, someone who was sensitive enough and knew what to look for could theoretically do it I guess.

 

[Murky]

Watch Derren Brown's Messiah. Then hate him for being unable to figure out how he does it.

He admits to using tricks and I have seen him pull stuff of which would make many psychics scratch their heads. Really. Go find Messiah on youtube.

He relies on confirmation bias. People get suckered into his scam because they only want to believe it rather that view it skeptically.