Luke, David ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-2453, Zychowicz, Karolina, Richterova, Olga, Tjurina, Inna and Polonnikova, Jelena (2012) A sideways look at the neurobiology of psi: Precognition and circadian rhythms. NeuroQuantology: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Neuroscience and Quantum Physics, 10 (3). pp. 580-590. ISSN 1303-5150 (Online)

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Abstract

Theory suggests that the chemicals made in the pineal gland follow a circadian rhythm and may be important in the processes of sleeping and dreaming, and it is speculated that these chemicals may also be important in the mediation of spontaneous mystical and visionary states, and in the mediation of psi (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition or psychokinesis). The abundance of one such chemical, melatonin, is known to fluctuate cyclically, nevertheless very little research has been conducted to test whether peak melatonin periods (3am) are more conducive to psi than lower melatonin periods (e.g., 8am). The present study tested for precognition among ten participants across ten nights each, both during the night and first thing in the morning. Two types of test were used on each occasion: A 10-trial forced-choice precognition task and a single-trial free- recall dream precognition task, and it was predicted that dream psi performance would be better than forced-choice psi, particularly in the middle of the night when compared to performance in the morning. A number of other factors were also monitored for the possible relationship to psi performance, including belief in psi, belief in the paranormal and openness to experience. Both precognition task overall sample scores were non-significant, but dream precognition performance was significantly better at 3am than 8am, whereas the reverse was true for forced choice task, as predicted, although the interaction was not significant. None of the personality measures were found to correlate with precognition task performance, as might be expected with such a small sample size. The findings point to the importance of exploring circadian cycles in the research of psi, and offer tentative support for the psi-pineal gland hypothesis.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	dream precognition, melatonin, pineal, DMT, circadian rhythms
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Health & Social Care School of Health & Social Care > Department of Psychology & Counselling
Related URLs:	Publisher Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:23
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9390

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