Papers by Jim Carpenter
Southern Pines Pilot, 1999
I review the short-story collection Going to Graceland, by Ruth Moose.
Journal of Parapsychology, Sep 22, 2004
A model of the mind by which psi functioning may be better understood is described. A phenomenolo... more A model of the mind by which psi functioning may be better understood is described. A phenomenological approach is taken, and the model that is developed is psychological, teleological, and not physically reductionistic. This model assumes that each organism, by its nature, extends beyond itself into the larger pre-sensory surround. Psi is assumed to be neither knowledge nor action, but to belong to the outermost temporal edge of those normal pre-experiential mental processes by which the mind structures all its experiences and commences all its actions. Psi processes are posited to function normally as the unconscious leading edge of the development of all consciousness and all intention. This unconscious functioning is normal and continuous, and is a constituent element of all experience. Like subliminal apprehensions, presensory apprehensions sometimes can be seen by the anticipatory arousal of networks of meaning and affective activation that they evoke, and that function normally to help our minds select and understand the contents of our experience and initiate our actions. These anticipatory, orienting networks are ordinarily experienced as inadvertencies, events (both "inner" and "outer") that seem to have no particular meaning but that implicitly express the action of the orienting activity. Such inadvertencies are marginal to consciousness, and ordinarily may be noticed only when the mind is not occupied with conscious work. By sensitively consulting the implications of inadvertencies, traces of the psi effect may be noticed. It is assumed that unconscious mental processes, including psi processes, are motivated by personal intentions and needs, also largely unconscious. The problems of psi-hitting, psi-missing, and directional switching are addressed. Implications of the model for understanding psi-conducive states are developed, and a relationship between psi and states of dissociation or prolonged confusion or uncertainty is proposed. Persons who are relatively "psychic" are either more prone to intentions and states of mind that facilitate production of such marginal material, or have developed more interest and skills in the introspective examination with which they can be understood, or both. The roots of the model and its relation to some other conceptual contributions in parapsychology are examined.
Journal of Parapsychology, 2008
Journal of Parapsychology, Mar 22, 2005
The First Sight model presented earlier is developed further here. The essential elements of the ... more The First Sight model presented earlier is developed further here. The essential elements of the model are summarized and the place of psi functioning within the context of other preconscious psychological processes is emphasized. In particular, the hypothesized posture of unconscious focus toward or away-from extrasensory content is discussed in the context of the constructs of assimilation and accommodation as they are understood to function in the formation of perceptions and judgments. Three areas of experience are picked as being especially pertinent to seeing the interplay of psi processes with other preconscious processes: subliminal or suboptimal sensory perception, memory, and acts of creativity. Pertinent research in each area is summarized with some syntheses offered. The model's utility is evaluated in terms of three criteria: its congruence with some major findings in parapsychology, its ability to shed light on the apparent disparity between parapsychological phenomena and everyday experience and common sense, and its capacity to harmonize the findings of parapsychology with our larger scientific understanding of reality. Some directions for future research that are implied by the model are outlined.
Journal of Parapsychology, 2017
We report a new procedure for accessing the implicit expression of psi information. The assumptio... more We report a new procedure for accessing the implicit expression of psi information. The assumption that psi information can unconsciously inform the development of social interaction guided this research. Members of a quasi-therapeutic group carried out unstructured sessions while a distant experimenter randomly selected an ESP target (a picture). Immediately following each session, group members blindly rated the target and three decoy pictures for their degree of association to the session that had just transpired. Each person's ratings were independent and global, assessing congruence in mood, content, and significant session-events between session and pictures. Averaged ratings yielded one ESP score per session. A group of volunteers with evolving membership met weekly over a period of several years, accumulating 386 sessions (excluding predetermined pilot trials). Overall, the group was able to correctly associate its spontaneous group processes with the days' targets to a significant degree. The group also rated sessions in terms of several qualities such as risk, helpfulness, and hurtfulness, immediately following the session and prior to viewing the day's pictures, and rated their moods prior to beginning the session. The group was most successful at expressing and identifying the target when sessions did not involve too much intimate self-disclosure, and when members began the sessions with moods low in anxiety and skepticism.
Journal of Parapsychology, 2021
First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to... more First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to all common experiences, such as judgments, perceptions and feelings. To test this in the case of feelings of preference, we carried out two experiments examining the implicit expression of ESP information in preference ratings of pictures, as moderated by several variables specified by FST. The studies also attempted to demonstrate the influence of unconscious information (extra sensory and subliminal) upon mood, and the subsequent influence of mood upon a person's gen eral orientation toward unconscious influences, including psi. In the first study, variables included 3 facets of openness and 2 facets of anxiety from the NEO-PI, involvement in a creative pursuit, belief that ESP is possible, tolerance for unstructured tasks, and a measure of tolerance for inter personal merger. Mood was measured indirectly by the valence of autobiographical early memory. Most of the variables were related to ESP influence as predicted, and the relationships tended to be stronger when mood was positive. Multiple regression was used to condense these findings into a cluster of orthogonal variables that might be expected to be most reliable. The second study test ed this composite variable in a new sample and validated it significantly. Again, relationships were stronger when mood was better. We also predicted that relationships should be stronger when the information is of more personal relevance-pictures containing human content vs. no human con tent-and this was confirmed as well. Each study also examined the effect of subliminal stimulation upon other preference trials (participants could not distinguish extrasensory and subliminal trials) and examined the power of variables found in previous research to predict subliminal response. The first study found limited validation for the subliminal predictions, and the second study found no validation for them. Participants' moods were influenced by subliminal cues of merger in the first study, but they were not influenced by comparable extrasensory stimuli in the second. Responses to extrasensorially pre-exposed and subliminally pre-exposed pictures were not correlated with each other in either study.
Journal of Parapsychology, 2021
First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to... more First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to all common experiences, such as judgments, perceptions and feelings. To test this in the case of feelings of preference, we carried out two experiments examining the implicit expression of ESP information in preference ratings of pictures, as moderated by several variables specified by FST. The studies also attempted to demonstrate the influence of unconscious information (extra sensory and subliminal) upon mood, and the subsequent influence of mood upon a person's gen eral orientation toward unconscious influences, including psi. In the first study, variables included 3 facets of openness and 2 facets of anxiety from the NEO-PI, involvement in a creative pursuit, belief that ESP is possible, tolerance for unstructured tasks, and a measure of tolerance for inter personal merger. Mood was measured indirectly by the valence of autobiographical early memory. Most of the variables were related to ESP influence as predicted, and the relationships tended to be stronger when mood was positive. Multiple regression was used to condense these findings into a cluster of orthogonal variables that might be expected to be most reliable. The second study test ed this composite variable in a new sample and validated it significantly. Again, relationships were stronger when mood was better. We also predicted that relationships should be stronger when the information is of more personal relevance-pictures containing human content vs. no human con tent-and this was confirmed as well. Each study also examined the effect of subliminal stimulation upon other preference trials (participants could not distinguish extrasensory and subliminal trials) and examined the power of variables found in previous research to predict subliminal response. The first study found limited validation for the subliminal predictions, and the second study found no validation for them. Participants' moods were influenced by subliminal cues of merger in the first study, but they were not influenced by comparable extrasensory stimuli in the second. Responses to extrasensorially pre-exposed and subliminally pre-exposed pictures were not correlated with each other in either study.
First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to... more First Sight Theory (FST) proposes that ESP is an ongoing unconscious process that con tributes to all common experiences, such as judgments, perceptions and feelings. To test this in the case of feelings of preference, we carried out two experiments examining the implicit expression of ESP information in preference ratings of pictures, as moderated by several variables specified by FST. The studies also attempted to demonstrate the influence of unconscious information (extra sensory and subliminal) upon mood, and the subsequent influence of mood upon a person's gen eral orientation toward unconscious influences, including psi. In the first study, variables included 3 facets of openness and 2 facets of anxiety from the NEO-PI, involvement in a creative pursuit, belief that ESP is possible, tolerance for unstructured tasks, and a measure of tolerance for inter personal merger. Mood was measured indirectly by the valence of autobiographical early memory. Most of the variables were related to ESP influence as predicted, and the relationships tended to be stronger when mood was positive. Multiple regression was used to condense these findings into a cluster of orthogonal variables that might be expected to be most reliable. The second study test ed this composite variable in a new sample and validated it significantly. Again, relationships were stronger when mood was better. We also predicted that relationships should be stronger when the information is of more personal relevance -pictures containing human content vs. no human con tent -and this was confirmed as well. Each study also examined the effect of subliminal stimulation upon other preference trials (participants could not distinguish extrasensory and subliminal trials) and examined the power of variables found in previous research to predict subliminal response. The first study found limited validation for the subliminal predictions, and the second study found no validation for them. Participants' moods were influenced by subliminal cues of merger in the first study, but they were not influenced by comparable extrasensory stimuli in the second. Responses to extrasensorially pre-exposed and subliminally pre-exposed pictures were not correlated with each other in either study.
Book Reviews by Jim Carpenter
Journal of Scientific Exploration , 2020
I offer here a review of the book: The Paranormal Surrounds Us, by Richard Reichbart, and discuss... more I offer here a review of the book: The Paranormal Surrounds Us, by Richard Reichbart, and discuss the "vicissitudes of psi" in the context of psychoanalytic history and practice.
Journal of Parapsychology, 2022
Sally Feather, the daughter of J. B. Rhine, and Barbara Ensrud have transcribed over 1500 letters... more Sally Feather, the daughter of J. B. Rhine, and Barbara Ensrud have transcribed over 1500 letters from the little mountain of correspondence that J.B. Rhine carried out in the seminal years of the 1920's and '30's, and carefully distilled that down to the representative set presented in this volume. They can be read as scientific history, and in that aspect they are fascinating; but they can also be read like a novel, a story that races along, with many fascinating characters, triumphs, failures, intrigue, honor and dishonor, close calls, blunders and victories. The story is so immediate, one feels present in it. Is it ultimately a happy story? We see some of its fruits around us in daily life. People speak glibly of their extra sensory perception, or ESP (Rhine coined the acronym). Our popular culture of literature, film and television is suffused with characters who have dramatic extrasensory and psychokinetic powers which Rhine established as legitimate areas of study. Yet psychology professors across the land routinely tell their trusting students that there are no such things.
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Papers by Jim Carpenter
Book Reviews by Jim Carpenter