In ganzfeld experiments, a 'receiver' relaxes with halved ping-pong balls over their eyes and white noise in their ears. A 'sender' in another room focuses on an image. Some analyses report hits above chance. Critics say flaws and selective reporting explain it.
Truth label: Debated. Serious people disagree. You get both sides.
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The numbers
Choosing from four images, chance is 25%. Some meta-analyses report around 30 to 32%.
The objections
Sceptics point to small studies, unpublished failures and the difficulty of fully sealing off cues.
Learn
- Why ganzfeld?. Blocking out normal sights and sounds is meant to make faint signals easier to notice.
Test yourself
With four images, what hit rate is pure chance?
25%. One in four is 25%.
Sources
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