[Zurück zum
Forschungsbericht]

Remote Meditation Support – A Multimodal Distant Intention Experiment

Projektbeschreibung:
Within distant intention research three dominant paradigms have evolved over the last 35 years which show in meta-analyses small but significant effects around d=0,1 (S. Schmidt, Schneider, Utts, & Walach, 2004; S. Schmidt, 2012). These are the EDA-DMILS experiment, the Remote Staring experiment (RSE) and the Attention Focusing Facilitation Experiment (AFFE). All three experiments have in common that in a two person effort the intention of one person (agent) is varied systematically while the effect of this variation is assessed in the other person (receiver, staree, helpee), who is in a remote location. The intention is either to activate or to calm the receiver (EDA-DMILS), to stare at the staree (RSE) or to help the helpee to regulate her attention (AFFE). Since these three experiments yield almost exactly the same effect size in large meta-analyses it is assumed that they reflect a genuine effect of distant intention which is independent of contextual variations and its modality (S. Schmidt, in press). The problem with distant intention paradigms is that the effect is too small to be reliably found in a study with a reasonable number of participants. As a consequence, as we know today, almost all distant intention studies had insufficient statistical power. Based on these considerations the basic idea of this project is to identify features which are suitable to raise the effect size of distant intention paradigms. We propose two factors with which we hypothesize to increase the effect size of distant intention experiments. This will be (1) participant selection and (2) improving the capacity of intention regulation by the use of experienced meditators as agents. The task of the AFFE paradigm is to focus one’s attention on an object and to report by a button press whenever one notices that the attention has wandered away from this focus. At the same time a remote agent or helper supports the helpee during several short epochs by performing the same task while at control epochs s/he disengages from the task. The founder of this paradigm William Braud described this task already as ‘protomeditational in its nature’ (Braud, Shafer, McNeill, & Guerra, 1995, p. 114), since the task of regulating one’s attention willfully over a longer period is the basis of any meditation (Shapiro, 1982). However, this is not only true for the helpee but also for the agent. In order to maintain a stable intention towards the goal of the experiment also the agents need to regulate their attention and one can assume they will benefit from learned capacities by meditation experience in their task. We thus suggest replicating the AFFE experiment with trained meditators. Furthermore we will aim at selecting gifted participants for this experiment by the use of a pre-test. Within the parapsychology there is a longstanding debate on the use of unselected vs. gifted participants. Many researchers have suggested performing a simple psi-test in order to identify suitable participants. Ertel has developed such a test, called the Ball Drawing Test and has tested this method extensively in large student populations (2010). With this method he was able to identify several participants scoring reliably above chance. Thus, we propose to conduct an Attention Focusing Facilitation Experiment (AFFE) with 30 sessions with experienced meditators which have passed successfully the Ball Drawing Test. The research strategy for this experiment is to make high investments in participant selection, by identifying potentially successful participants from a large group of candidates. In the AFFE protocol the helpees have the task of focusing their minds on a candle placed directly in front of them. Whenever they notice that their minds have wandered they are asked to press a button. The frequency of these button presses are used as a measure of distraction and, thus, as the dependent variable. The task of the agent in a remote room is to either assist the helpee to focus, or not. Helping and control epochs are signaled to the agent/helper in random order. For the analysis the frequency of button presses during helping epochs is compared to that during control epochs. We will modify this protocol in several aspects in order to emphasize the meditation aspect of the task. (1) The lengths of the single epochs will be extended to three minutes. (2) Meditators will use special meditation techniques (metta meditation) to direct their intention to the helpee during experimental epochs. (3) During control epochs the helpers are asked to conduct maths problems in order to distract their mind from the helpee. (4) The whole experimental context (light, sound, and seating) will be designed in a way optimal for maintaining a silent meditative attitude over the course of the session for both participants. (5) In addition to the behavioral measure of button presses we will add a psychophysiological variable to arrive at a multimodal assessment of the experiment.
Projektlaufzeit:
Projektbeginn: 2015
Projektende: 2017
Projektleitung:
Schmidt S

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Zentrum für Psychische Erkrankungen (Department)
Klinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie
Hauptstrasse 8
79104 Freiburg

Telefon: +49 / 761 / 270-68060
Fax: +49 / 761 / 270-68850
Finanzierung:

  • Bial Foundation, Portugal

Aktueller Forschungsbericht