Automated Tests for Telephone Telepathy Using Mobile Phones.

Area of Science:

• Parapsychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Telecommunication

Background:

• Investigating anomalous phenomena like telepathy requires rigorous experimental design.
• Previous research has faced challenges in controlling variables and preventing fraud.
• Mobile phone technology offers a novel platform for conducting such research remotely and efficiently.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement automated telepathy experiments using mobile phones.
• To assess the accuracy of telepathic guesses during telephone calls.
• To analyze the influence of factors like the number of potential callers and time delays on guess accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Recruited subjects aged 10-83 who registered online with sender details.
• Utilized a computer system to randomly select a sender, initiate a call, and record the subject's guess before connecting.
• Conducted tests with either three or two potential callers, with each test comprising six trials.

Main Results:

• With three callers, 2080 trials yielded 869 correct guesses (41.8%), significantly above the 33.3% chance expectation (P < 1 × 10(-15)).
• With two callers, 745 trials resulted in 411 correct guesses (55.2%), exceeding the 50% chance expectation (P = .003).
• Analyses indicated that optional stopping and cheating were unlikely to explain the observed results.

Conclusions:

• Automated telepathy experiments can be successfully conducted using mobile phone technology.
• The study provides statistically significant evidence supporting the existence of telepathy in the context of telephone calls.
• Further research is warranted to explore the underlying mechanisms and influencing factors of this phenomenon.