Download classification of phenomena of parapsychology from the point of

Boldyreva & Sotina
CLASSIFICATION OF PHENOMENA OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY
FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PHYSICS. SUPERFLUID
VACUUM
Liudmila B. Boldyreva1 & Nina B. Sotina2
1
State University of Management, Moscow
2
Moscow State University
ABSTRACT
From the point of view of physics all parapsychology-related phenomena can be divided into four categories:
phenomena which contradict the modern physical knowledge obtained both theoretically and experimentally;
phenomena which do not directly contradict the contemporary scientific knowledge but no explanation of which
is seen at present; phenomena which have explanations on the basis of existing scientific paradigm; phenomena
which allow for a physical interpretation on the basis of new concepts of physics that are consistent with
experimental data.
Precognition can be placed in the first category as being inconsistent with the “arrow of time” (irreversibility),
the notion introduced for fundamental description of nature. Note that precognition should not be confused
with ordinary prediction, or a certain approximation into the future based both on the personal experience,
knowledge of the expected course of events, and deeper sources of information feeding our intuition, such as
telepathy. Telepathy refers to the second category (we look upon the telepathy from he point of view of physics
and seek for the mechanism through which the sender selects the specific recipient from a number of recipients
and the mechanism through which information propagates through the physical vacuum). Remote dowsing
performed with the use of geographical maps, determination of the location of a person by photo or handwriting
refer as well to this category. The third category includes some phenomena of psychokinesis where influence of
an operator on a distant object can be explained by acoustic, diffusive or electromagnetic processes.
Among the phenomena of the fourth category are, first of all, the phenomena of psychokinesis which cannot
be explained by thermal, acoustic or electromagnetic processes. These are the phenomena where the
sensitive’s influence is independent of the presence of electromagnetic screens, it features ‘selectivity’ and is
also independent of the distance (up to 2000 km in the experiments). To explain such phenomena is to
find a new physical mechanism underlying the effect with the above properties. We developed a model of
physical vacuum as a superfluid consisting of pairs of unlikely charged microparticles with spins. (A superfluid
consisting of pairs of fermions with zero total electric charge of pairs is known at present. It is 3He). According to
the model, a quantum object creates in vacuum certain structures which can interact with each other. This
interaction may have the property of ‘selectivity’, it does not depend on the distance between the interacting
structures and is performed ‘without participation’ of photons. In the framework of the model of the superfluid
vacuum, many phenomena of psychokinesis can be interpreted as an interaction between the structures created
in vacuum by the sensitive and the object being influenced. Ascribing the properties of superfluid to the physical
vacuum allows one to work out recommendations on setting up experiments in the area of parapsychology (first
of all, connected with shielding of the sensitive’s influence). The processes in superfluids are theoretically
dissipativeless. Thus, while describing a number of parapsychology-related phenomena, the vacuum with the
superfluid properties can be treated as an information field.
INTRODUCTION
In this article a classification of phenomena of parapsychology from the point of view of physics is given.
From this point of view all parapsychology-related phenomena can be divided into four categories:
phenomena which contradict the modern physical knowledge obtained both theoretically and
experimentally; phenomena which do not directly contradict the contemporary scientific knowledge but no
explanation of which is seen at present; phenomena which have explanations on the basis of existing
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scientific paradigm; phenomena which allow for a physical interpretation on the basis of new concepts of
physics that are consistent with experimental data.
Among the phenomena of the fourth category are, first of all, the phenomena of psychokinesis which
cannot be explained by thermal, acoustic or electromagnetic processes. These are the phenomena where the
where the operator’s influence (the term operator will be used hereinafter for denoting the person exerting
mental influence on an object: an instrument or organism) is independent of the presence of
electromagnetic screens, features ‘selectivity’ and is also independent of the distance (the distance between
the operator and the object influenced has been as great as 2000 km).
To explain such phenomena is to find a new physical mechanism underlying the effect with the above
properties.
We developed a model of superfluid physical vacuum which is based largely on the properties of
superfluid 3Не–В. According to the model, a quantum object creates in vacuum certain structures which can
interact with each other. This interaction may have the property of ‘selectivity’, it does not depend on the
distance between the interacting structures and is performed ‘without participation’ of photons.
In the framework of the model of the superfluid vacuum, many phenomena of psychokinesis can be
interpreted as an interaction between the structures created in vacuum by the operator and the object being
influenced. Ascribing the properties of superfluid to the vacuum allows one to work out recommendations
on setting up experiments in the area of parapsychology, first of all, connected with shielding of the
operator’s influence. According to the model of superfluid vacuum, such shielding can be done by means of
photons or rotating electric fields.
CLASSIFICATION
From the point of view of physics, all parapsychology-related phenomena can be divided into four
categories.
The first category
Phenomena which contradict the modern physical knowledge obtained both theoretically and
experimentally. Precognition (perception of some future situation in detail) is an example of such
phenomena.
The rapid development of nonlinear physics and thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes, which
took place during the past decades, has revealed the necessity of introducing the “arrow of time”
(irreversibility) for a fundamental description of nature (Prigogine & Stengers, 1997). It became clear that
even in classical mechanics, while solving a specific task, one may face an unpredictable chaotic behavior of
the coordinates and momenta which characterize the dynamic system state.
Various cases of successful fortune-telling are often cited to support the existence of precognition. Note
that precognition should not be confused with ordinary prediction, or a certain approximation into the
future based both on the personal experience, knowledge of the expected course of events, and deeper
sources of information feeding our intuition, such as telepathy. Besides, the effect of self-suggestion based
on one’s belief in the truth of the prediction should not be ruled out.
The second category
Phenomena which do not directly contradict the contemporary scientific knowledge but no explanation
of which is seen at present. An example of the phenomena of this kind is telepathy. Speaking of telepathy,
we do not mean physiological, biophysical or psychological aspects of the problem, i.e. we are not interested
in the processes taking place in the sender or receiver when he or she sends or receives targets/impressions
in an ESP test. There is a lot of techniques used in here, such as “ganzfeld” described by many authors (e.g.
Bem, 1996). Making our classification, we look upon the telepathy from the point of view of physics and
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seek answers to the following questions: What is the mechanism through which the sender selects the
specific recipient from a number of recipients? What is the mechanism through which information
propagates through the physical vacuum?
Remote dowsing performed with the use of geographical maps, determination of the location of a person
by photo or handwriting refer as well to this category. Some examples are given below.
• Wolf Messing (Messing, 1990), widely known owing to his experiments on telepathy, described in
his book I am a Telepathist how he got information about a young man whose photo had been given to him
by the young man’s sister.
I am looking at the photo of the poor woman’s brother... And all of a sudden I see him as if he got off the
photograph. He looks younger; in a smart suit. I say, ‘There is nothing to worry about, miss. Your brother is alive.
He has had hard times, but now he is doing well. You will receive a letter from him in thirteen days, today
inclusive.’ It became the talk of the town. The information reached the journalists. When the thirteenth day
forecasted by myself came, it appeared that the journalists of almost all Polish newspapers had gathered at that
small town. The letter from far-off Philadelphia was delivered with the evening train. The fact received full
coverage in the Polish newspapers.
• Wolf Messing could acquire information about a person by his or her handwriting. In the abovementioned book he wrote (Messing, 1990), “I have taken a sheet of paper with a text... I see that the hand
which wrote the text is dead.” (It was established later that Messing’s ‘diagnosis’ was correct).
• Certified biolocation engineer E.G. Bondarenko determined the location of oil-bearing layers using
a map. In a control experiment, with the layers whose boundaries had been specified earlier, the objects
were determined correctly in 10 out of 12 cases (Boldyreva & Sotina, 2002). (Note that people who knew
the position of the layers were not present during the experiment.)
Note that a few researchers tend to explain some of these phenomena by quantum nonlocality.
(Quantum nonlocality is a phenomenon where the results of quantum measurements conducted in two or
greater number of points which are far-off from each other appear to be mutually dependent.) The idea of
existence of quantum nonlocality emerged from the theory of composite states and the experiments with
quantum-correlated elementary particles; the quantum-correlated particles have the following property: once
having been described by the same wave function, their behavior in future (described by laws of the
probability theory) will be mutually dependent even if they are spatially separated.
However, various explanations of quantum nonlocality have been generally considered arguable so far.
There are several ways of “explanation” of quantum correlations: 1) the Copenhagen interpretation
according to which nothing can be said about some properties of elementary particles before the
measurement; 2) the existence of interactions which propagate at superluminal rates, 3) the introduction of
negative probabilities (the rejection of “arrow of time”.) Nevertheless, how can any of the above ideas serve
as a basis for explanation of the following phenomenon: an operator telling by a person’s photo whether the
person is alive or dead?
The third category
Phenomena which have explanations on the basis of existing scientific paradigm. For example, some
phenomena of psychokinesis1 where influence of an operator on a distant object can be explained by
acoustic, diffusive or electromagnetic processes. Below are given some examples of psychokinesis of that
kind (based on the experiments conducted in Russia.)
• While investigating the acoustic field of an operator, Dr. G.N. Dulnev has detected acoustic pulses
of 0.01 sec width and 70 dB amplitude in the frequency range of 25–40000 Hz (Dulnev, 2000). At certain
instances of the operator’s influence session, the pulse duration decreased down to 5–7 10-5 sec and the
amplitude increased up to 90 dB. It is known that noise with such an amplitude can create pressure of 0.1
g/cm2; the pressure is suffice to produce a displacement of a light object provided there is a considerable
reduction of the friction force. To check the acoustic hypothesis of contactless displacement of objects as a
1
Psychokinesis refers not only to the visible displacement of remote objects under influence of the operator but also to operator's
influencing various organisms, such as bacteria, plants, or small animals.
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result of the operator’s (mental) efforts, the object was screened using a shielding castle. Under the normal
pressure of 760 mmHg the object was displaced at the operator’s influence. When forevacuum of 10-3
mmHg had been created under the castle, the operator was unable to move the object.
• A team of people who had been trained according to Dr Lee’s technique (Lee & Ivanova, 1975)
were able to rotate a non-metallic propeller placed under a glass castle from the distance of several
centimeters. However, the effect became less as air was pumped off from the castle.
Note: If a human is able not only to radiate but also to detect ultrasound, then some cases of short-range
psychokinesis could be explained by the effects of ultrasonography, e.g. recognition of Zener cards placed
into light-tight paper bags.
• In 1985 N.D. Kolbun and V.E. Lobarev conducted experiments (a private communication, 1995) in
which an operator acted positively on some biological objects at a distance of 10 cm. However, when an
electromagnetic screen was used no positive effect was observed. The researchers concluded that the effect
was of electromagnetic nature, which was confirmed by the fact that a similar effect took place when the
same biological objects had been irradiated with electromagnetic fields (in the millimeter wavelength range).
• The research carried out by Dr. G.N. Dulnev (Dulnev, 2000) has shown that some people can
generate intense thermal flows (radiating from the palm of a hand) of about 40 W/m2. Such a radiation may
underlie the positive effects produced by people influencing plants at distances of 4–7 cm.
Such phenomena are actively investigated now and, by tradition, are still believed to belong to
parapsychology in spite of the fact that they are already tightly bound to classical scientific disciplines.
The fourth category
Phenomena which allow for a physical interpretation on the basis of new concepts of physics that are
consistent with experimental data.
In our view the said phenomena are those which cannot be explained by thermal, acoustic or
electromagnetic processes. As an illustration, we shall give below the results of experiments where operators
influenced plants and microcalorimeters.
• At the beginning of the 1990’s a team of Moscow researchers conducted experiments on the
operator’s influence on plant leaves (cucumber or corn were used) (Davydov et al., 1993). The electric
response of a leaf to irradiation of the plant by light was measured, i.e. the voltage between the leaf and the
root. It is known that the magnitude of the electric response depends upon the physiological condition of
the plant and it changes under the influence of varying parameters of the environment. In the experiments,
such a varying parameter was the influence of an operator, exercised during 3-4 min before the irradiation
by light.
In the course of the experiments the measuring instruments and the plant were placed in a metal
grounded chamber, and the operator exercised influence both in close vicinity of the plant and from an
adjacent room (at a distance of 5 m).
122 experiments were conducted; among them 91 ones were control, in 15 experiments the operator
aimed at reduction of the electric response, 16 at the increase of the response. It was established with 95
percent confidence that the operator could influence the physiological reaction rates of the plants, and the
effect of the influence did not depend on the shielding of the experimental setup and the distance between
the operator and the plant.
‘Selectivity’ of the operator’s influence has been discovered. In 41 experiments there were 2 closely
placed plants (within a distance of 40 cm) and the operator attempted to influence only one of them at a
distance. It was shown with 95 percent confidence that the operator was able to exert selective influence.
The effect of such selective influence did not depend on whether the operator was in the same room as the
plants were, or in a different room.
• At the end of the 1980’s, two Moscow scientists, Dr. G. K. Gurtovoy and
Dr. A. G. Parkhomov, carried out experiments on the operator’s influence on microcalorimeters (Gurtovoy
& Parkhomov, 1992). The microcalorimeter is an instrument intended to measure weak thermal effects. It
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can measure the temperature difference (through measuring the thermistor’s electrical resistance) of the
order of 10-5 ºC.
An analysis of the results of a great number of trials revealed the following characteristics of the
operator’s action at a distance.
There was ‘selectivity’ of the operator’s influence: the operator was able to influence the
microcalorimeter placed at a distance of some kilometers from the operator, and, at the same time, did not
influence the instrument placed in an adjacent room.
Thus in the above experiments the operator’s influence cannot be explained by thermal or acoustic
factors due to the great distance between the operator and object being acted upon. Besides, the
independence of the distance and presence of electromagnetic screens, as well as the ‘selectivity’ of the
operator’s influence rule out the electromagnetic hypothesis too. Thus, to explain the above effects, it is
necessary to search for a new type of physical mechanism accounting for conveying the operator’s influence.
To this end we address the properties of physical vacuum.
PHYSICAL VACUUM
Before the special theory of relativity was introduced, space was assumed to be filled with a medium
(ether) with the properties similar to a common “mechanical” medium. Since such a model of ether could
not explain a number of experimental facts, the theory of special relativity discarded the ether as a physical
medium.
According to a modern cosmological theory, the universe is filled with the physical vacuum which
created an antigravitational field giving rise to the cosmological expansion acceleration (Chernin, 2001).
Based on the general theory of relativity the cosmological theory presumes that the space vacuum,
irrespective of the frame of reference, would universally and invariably have the constant density of energy
(which should exceed the density of any other kind of space energy) and also the constant negative pressure.
From the point of view of modern physics, the space vacuum is the same physical vacuum where
interactions between elementary particles take place and which is present in the atomic physics as the state
of field with minimum energy. However, the zero oscillations of vacuum energy, the polarization of vacuum
in electric fields, the Lamb shift of spectral lines of atoms, the electron-positron pair production suggest that
the microstructure of physical vacuum is complex and only under sufficiently great averaging scales it can be
assumed that the pressure is universally and invariably constant and the energy density is constant.
In our works (Boldyreva & Sotina, 1992, 1999, 2002) we presented a model of vacuum as a superfluid
consisting of pairs of unlikely charged microparticles with spins. The total spin of the pair equals zero. (A
superfluid consisting of pairs of fermions with zero total electric charge of pairs is known at present. It is
3
He.) The model is substantiated well enough. The superfluid properties of vacuum (the zero viscosity while
in motion) explain the observed dissipativeless motion of celestial bodies in space. The presence of
electrically unlike microparticles allows one to describe the dielectric properties of the vacuum and the
production of electrically charged elementary particles out of the vacuum.
Some researchers (Sinha & Sudurshan, 1978) have advanced earlier a model of vacuum as a superfluid
consisting of pairs of unlikely charged particles with spins. In some papers, e.g. (Bauerle et al., 1996), an
analogy is discussed between the phase transitions in the vacuum and those in condensed media,
specifically, in superfluid 3He-B. However, the four-dimensional relativistic formalism is preserved in all of
the proposed models; in some of them the photon is considered a collective excitation of fermionic field,
but the nature of the excitation has not been specified in them.
We develop the model of superfluid vacuum in the framework of the three-dimensional Euclidean space
and time independent of the spatial coordinates. We extended the analogy between the properties of
superfluid 3He-B and those of the physical vacuum. Such properties of the superfluid 3He-B vortices as
quantization of the angular momentum, production of a core with altered inertial properties, electric
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polarization (Salomaa & Volovik, 1987) allowed us to suggest that the photon was a vortex structure in the
superfluid physical vacuum.
Essentially, our model treats the superfluid vacuum as a luminiferous medium which, historically, might
be best called the superfluid ether. No doubt that the introduction of such a medium arouses the wellknown problems of the preferable frame of reference, which have been resolved by special relativity at the
cost of discarding the ether. In our works, we represented the photon (in the pure state) as a complex entity
with intrinsic degrees of freedom, which allowed us, with due account for the fundamental role of
measurement in quantum physics, to advance new promising approaches to solving those problems.
All superfluids are able to sustain for a long time the structures (e.g. vortices) created in it. But owing to
the fact that a pair of unlikely charged particles in superfluid 3He has nonzero summary spin this superfluid
has unique properties in this respect: stable spin structures may exist in it. The topological structures created
in the fluid were studied in a number of fundamental works. In our model, any quantum object described
by the Schrödinger equation (e.g. an electron in an atom) creates in the vacuum a spin structure of the
uniformly precessing domain (UPD) type.
There are processes in superfluids that lead to the equalization of the order parameter. The order
parameter gradient can be caused, for example, by a difference in orientation of spins of the fluid particles
or a difference in the spin precession phases. The order parameter gradient may give rise to a superfluid spin
current. At a certain magnitude of the spin current, a precession phase slip of the value of 2πn can occur.
The following features of the process are worthy of notice: quantization of the phase slip value at which the
phase slip takes place; ‘selectivity’ of the effect, namely, the phase slip takes place only at specific magnitudes
of spin current (or phase gradient, which is the same); independence of the distance between the interacting
structures, i.e. the UPD’s.
Thus, according to the model of superfluid physical vacuum, which is based largely on the properties of
superfluid 3He-B, the quantum objects create in the vacuum certain structures which can interact between
each other (for example, by means of spin current). This interaction has the properties:
- ‘selectivity’;
- does not depend on the distance between the interacting structures;
- is performed ‘without participation’ of photons.
DISCUSSION
In the framework of the model of the superfluid vacuum, many phenomena of psychokinesis which
cannot be explained by thermal, acoustic or electromagnetic processes (in the classification given in this
paper some such phenomena of psychokinesis were related to the fourth category) can be interpreted as an
interaction between the structures created in the vacuum by the operator and the object being influenced
(Boldyreva & Sotina, 2002).
Ascribing the superfluid properties to the vacuum allows one to work out recommendations on setting
up experiments in the area of parapsychology.
-Shielding of the operator’s influence with rotating electric fields. In our model of superfluid vacuum,
rotating electric fields give rise to a precession of the particles constituting the vacuum. This should affect
the interaction between the structures created in the vacuum by the quantum objects.
-Shielding of the operator’s influence with a flow of photons. As was mentioned above, in our model of
superfluid vacuum, photons are vortical structures: the precession of the particles constituting the vacuum
takes place in those structures. This should, as in the previous case, affect the interaction between the
structures created in the vacuum by the quantum objects.
-Affecting the ‘selectivity’ of the operator’s influence (that is affecting the ‘connection’ between the
operator and the object being influenced upon.) Our model of the physical vacuum presumes that the
‘selectivity’ is of frequency-related nature.
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The processes in superfluids are theoretically dissipativeless. Thus, while describing a number of
parapsychology-related phenomena, the vacuum with the superfluid properties can be treated as an
information field.
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Address for correspondence: Liudmila B. Boldyreva,
State University of Management, Academica Anokhina
Ulitsa 5-1-61, 119571 Moscow, Russia.
E-mail: [email protected].
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