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Prcliminary (1roup 11"oport, for the Psycholo,@,,ical 'Iostinf,, of Subjects
From the, Parar,;vcholo@:,., Stu-cly at Stanford Pesearch Tnstitute
During late summer and earl v fall , six sub'jects i-,rerc referred to me for
testing for the parapsyclioloPy study at Stanford Pesearch Tristitute.
1`--cc of the subjects were designated as sensitive subjects and three
o' the subjects were dcsif@njtcd as controls. It was planned that I
".7ould (10 the tostiniT without knowledge of which subjects were considered
sensitive and which sub 'iccts were considered controls. However, in the
course of my contacts i.:ith these subjects, it proved impossible not to
know which subjects belon-ed to which group, since I was to interview
each person in depth. Since personal experience with apparently extra-
sensory perception is a fairly dramatic event, subjects could not avoid
talking about these events and still be honest in an in-depth interview.
Consequently, a secondary plan was develoned in which I %ro@ld do the
T)5@!choloorical testing and write individual reports for each subject, and
Pr. Heenan would read the test blind and see whether lie c6uld pick out
tn'ree test records whicTi seemed more similar to each other than the rest,
thereby discriminatin[,T between sensitive and non-sensitive subjects.
Dr. Ifeenan hns not yet reviewed the test materials and so, since a pre-
liminary report is req'6ested, I am giving my clinical. imvression._@of the
groun data as pertains to the sensitive and control subjects.
Intellectual Functionin
All of the subjects in this study -disnlayed -listinctly above-average
intellectual abilities. Most subJects reached the superior range, and
several of the subjects reached the gifted range. As it happened, the
control subjects tended to show higher average intellectual functioning
scores than (lid sensitive subjects, althouph the difference could not be
said to be significant, given that there were only three subjects in each
C-roun. Two of the subjects from the sensitive aroun showed highly
V
ari
, able subtest scores within their intelligence test battery. This is,
some of the subskills would be extremely high and other subskills would
be extremely low. 71ie variable patterns shown are consistent with
ambivalentmotivation as regards learning tasks and academic situations.(
I was able to spot no consistent trends as to which subskills tended to
be high and which subsJIls tended to be low. For all six subjects,
verbal and performance skills tended to be about evenly balanced, and
memory skills were approximately what would be c."ected, given the intelli-
gence scores attained. The number scores on memory tests as well'as the
performances of the subjects themselves reflect a slight tendency toward
better memory for material which is organized lo'"ically or which appears
in a meaningful context than for rote memory material. In the control
group, this tendency seems less pronounced and in fact one subject showed
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ILLEGIB
a clear n-reference for rote memory material. The subject!; themselves
df_`-@ not feel that any oll" the intcllii!encc test matcrial tapped skills
or nropensitics on their -nart which might be linked to their extra-
sensory capacities, and since the patterns of strength and weakness
11,*@thin the test nroftles varied so widely, I am inclined to accept
their ju(Igment with one possible excention. It is nossible that
sensitive subjects tend to be holistic perceivers rather than analytic
nerceivors; that is, to perceivo in Gestalt rather than compartmentali zed
elements. Psvcholo.Pical tests which are directlv relevant to this dif-
ference in porcei)tuil style appear not to be standardized as yet and
sQ it is difficult to follow this lead.
Personalitv Functionin@y.
i',,'hen looked at from the point of view of psychopathology, the indi-
cators both in projective and in objective testin,q do not appear to ime
to show marked trends, either for the six subjects taken together or for
t'l-c- subjects in each groun, There does appear to be an interesting
s imi lari t,v in defensive style, particularly when this is taken together
1K.-th a similaritv in interests and vocational aptitude-, which can be seen
in a large number of the subjects both in sensitive and control grouns.
To elaborate, all six sub 'Jects tended to have high feminine scores on
t4he masculinity-femini-aity scale of the M.M.P.I. That scale does not
Treasure sexual. orientation but rathei:-,sex role stereotype. For example,
a nerson who is hi '-lily active in expressing his aggression, who is self
assertive and who adopts ''masculine" -interests in, say, sports, mechanics,
etc., is likely to got a high masculine score; a person who tends to be
fa 4 pulative, who tends to
@rly passive in exDres§in,- aggression, even mani
be interested in the arts, in music, in aesthetic sensitivities, is likely
to gain a hiph feminine score. Both the men and the women in this group
0.:! subjects tended to have high feminine scores. The trend is seen again
in the vocational aptitude survey, the Stron,- Vocational Interest Blank,
W,.erein all of the subjects tended to achieve high scores in music, art
an-1 writing, but T)articularly in writing was t-hi-s- consistent. The score
on writing aptitude appeared to be above average for the general popula-
tion in each subject and for several of the subjects it was one of tile
hi@@liest scores obtained. These two trends in the objective personality
test data can be compared with another trend found in the projective
test data, namely on the. Rorschach. Here, the responses of the Subjects
tended to emT.)hasize animal or human movement and to de-emphasize color.
This pattern is common in people who tend to be introspective, to have
a rich inner fantasv life, and in fact to rrefer that kind of expression
of tboir emotions to interpersonal exrression. The capacity to stand
bach from one's feelings, observe them, analyze them, even savor them,
is common among artists and particularly among writers.
Unfortunately, two of the subjects from the sensitive group,were
highly defensive about test-taking and their defensiveness was most
pronounced in the projective personality tests. The result was that
-2-
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@-'.icv fyavo v(,rv rflnimal rrcord, very few rcspon-,cs, anel were close-rionthed
4-7i tillln,,@ about th(-ir Hence, the pattern to which I refer can
.ne Scon more cleirlr in the control subjects than in the sensitive subjects
e%'on thoulfh it annears to occur for all six sub 'iects. Currently I am
coin!! an item-by-item analysis of the subioct's answers to the masculinity-
f@,@mininitv scale oF tile to see I.,'hethor the high scores obtained
are the i)roduct of interest natterns, aggression patterns, or both, and
W.-'ether tlie subjects ten,h-d-to check t1lie same items in order to achieve
t@eir hi0i scores or not. Closer content and sequential analysis of
t'ic lZorschach records may also be instructive in this reFard.
Tn t4e course of the testin@, tile control subjects be,-an to tell me that
as they particinated in t)i(, S.R.I. study, they aPT)eared to be developing
7.ore and more sonsitivity on the experiments performed and each was not
certain that he should be nronerlv classified as a control subject. In
V,11:in-' witli Dr. Puthoff, I learned that they did am3ear to be showing
so-ie sonsitivitv but that their nerformances were not reliable and so,
they still could be said to be imnortantly different from the sensitive
s ub'iects. If the sensitive Subjects Could be induced to be less defensive
ir. test-taking, it is possible that their records would show a pattern
which could be distinpuished from t'11,9t of the control subjects. Since
tliat is not the case, we nre left with a dilemma. A tendency toward
artistic interests, a rich fantasy life and an introversive style of
emotional expression may be accidental in all of these six subjects.
Tt nav be characteristi(r Of Persons who are willing, to participate in
paransYchological studies. It may be characteristic of nerson's who have
so@e extrasensory canacitv, whether great or small, or it may relate t6
sone other variable i%,hich happens to be4 common to these six subjects.
At least four of the subjects in this stu(IN, describe to me an interest
in scientology and two of then indicate thit thev have been involved in
the Church of, Scientology for some tine. This commonality may account
for the similarity described above.
Should the pattern of emotional style and aesthetic interest prove relevant
to extrasensorv capacitv, it would seem that the Rorschach gets at the most
funclamontal level of this quality. The objective tests are more likely to
be measuring the end products of that fundamental level of emotional ex-
pression. Since my readinc@ of projective test material is likely to be
colored by mv acquaintance with the subjects and what thev said about them-
selves. I will be interested to see whether Dr. Heenan can discern the
sarle T)attern, and for my oi.,-n curiosity I would like to be able to test
the sensitive subjects again, without them having read this report, to see
whether I can put them more at case on a second contact and get more pro-
ductive records from -them. Two o" these sub -iects said frankly that they
were alienated at the thou7ht of nsychological testing because their
oxnericnce was that people with extrasensory capacity were written off as
nuts and that psychologists and psvchiatrists alwavs examined them with an
eye toward any pathology they could discover. If they could be reassured
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t'-t that i-' as not the iioint of interest and at the same time not be
coached as to what kinds of resT)onscs I was interested in, another
session of projective testing miuht be productive.
rp
SG11'
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