Long-Distance, “Sensory-Bombardment” ESP in Dreams: A Failure to Replicate

An attempt was made to replicate findings of positive telepathic influence on dream content where the sender views audio-visual programs in a “sensory bombardment” chamber and the recipient's dreams are collected on experimental arousals in an EEG sleep laboratory. In the original study (Krippner, Honorton, Ullman, Masters, & Houston, 1971), agent- S distance was 14 miles; here it was approximately 2000 miles: the agent viewed programs in New York City while S slept in Wyoming. 8 female Ss were selected on the basis of prior telepathic experience, favorable attitudes toward telepathy, good dream recall, and rapport with the agent, who was a well-known “psychic.” Each slept for one experimental night, during which the agent viewed an audio-visual program randomly selected from a pool of such programs and constructed around a single theme. At the conclusion of the study, 3 judges were given the dreams, grouped by S, viewed the 8 audio-visual programs the agent had seen, and ranked the 8 programs for their correspondence to each S‘s dreams. High rankings (1–4) of the true target were considered “hits,” low rankings (5–8) “misses.” Median judge rankings of true targets failed to reveal a significant long-distance, “sensory bombardment” telepathic influence on Ss' dreams.