Precognition of a Quantum Process

Abstract

In two precognition experiments, the subjects were faced with four colored lamps which were lit in random sequence. Their objective was to guess which of the four lamps would light up next and to press the corresponding button. In the first experiment, there were three subjects, who carried out a total of 63,066 trials. Their combined results were highly significant (p < 2 x 10-9). In the second experiment, two of the same subjects plus a third had their choice of trying to predict, as before, which lamp would light up next (to try for high score) or to choose one which would not light next (low score). In a total of 20,000 trials, the subjects were again successful in achieving their aim to a highly significant extent (p < 10-10). For providing the random target sequence, use was made of single quantum processes which may represent nature’s most elementary source of randomness. A practical advantage of the device is that it works fast and that the randomness can be easily computer tested. The author is a physicist who is particularly interested in statistical physics and the foundations of quantum theory. After teaching at universities in Germany, Canada, and the U.S. he has joined Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories.