By Gary Osborn
Harvard psychologist, Robert Rosenthal, used to observe research psychologists as they performed their own experiments.
After a while, he thought he would try an experiment of his own, unbeknown to the other psychologists.
Rosenthal asked five of these psychologists to perform a certain experiment that he himself had conceived. He told them he wanted to check out this experiment to see if it really did give the result he expected – and most importantly, he let them know the conclusion they were most likely to find.
He then did the same with another five psychologists, and asked them to perform the same experiment; however, with this second group he gave a totally different description of the result that he thought they would be sure to find.
Even though both groups were performing the same experiment, Rosenthal made sure that each of the results that he had suggested to each group was different and that each would contradict the other.
Later, each group came back confirming each of their particular results, and just as he had predicted . . .
Both experiments were exactly the same, but each concluded with a different result that contradicted the other . . . How could this be?
It could only be that the contradictory results of the same experiment being performed by the two groups had actually been influenced by the minds of those in each group and that each result tallied with what had been expected and therefore believed by the people in each group.
This can only mean that by autosuggestion each group had actually 'created the result' of their particular experiment. In other words, the result of each experiment agreed with the suggested outcome that had already been given to each group by Rosenthal.
Let us not forget that Rosenthal himself expected the very result that he got from this experiment regarding these two groups of psychologists.
Since then, all kinds of experiments have been produced which have confirmed the ‘Rosenthal Effect’.
It was always found that somehow, and unintentionally, the researchers affected the people or the animals they were studying to produce the results they were expecting. However, again, we should also not forget that these experiments themselves were again subject to the creativity of the human mind. This tells us that to some extent, the result of the experiment really depends on the mind or consciousness of the person doing the experiment.
There is of course some evidence that physicists are actually creating the particles they are discovering!
In his edifying book, The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot mentions a newly-discovered particle called an "Anomaton", whose properties varied from laboratory to laboratory!
‘Imagine owning a car,’ Talbot writes, ‘that had a different colour and different features depending on who drove it!’ [1]
As Talbot would agree, the property of a certain subatomic packet of energy – even its reality – really depends on the person who finds it or creates it. Although once created the subatomic entity will still retain a wave/particle duality – which again tells us something about ourselves.
Looking at the examples given above and what they reveal about the human mind, can we rise above this kind of self-deception?
Yes! In some ways we can. The answer is to remain neutral, indifferent and impartial to any one point of view and find a balance by adopting what I call a Quantum state of mind, where opposite views – as in our divided perception and experience, of say an electron as either being a ‘particle’ or a ‘wave’ – are reconciled - fused together and cancelled out as opposite things in themselves.
Is this possible? . . Yes! – As meaningful insight, meaningful synchronicities, ESP, and telekinesis all attest to the fact that what I am talking about here is a 'third state' of mind very different to the everyday conscious-self and the subconscious-self. We could call this third-state of mind the 'Unconscious' - meaning that this third state is something we are mostly always unconscious of, therefore we only ever perceive and experience division and duality - a world of opposites. However, being in this state where one is actually conscious, attentive and aware within the twilight zone we would call the 'unconscious', means the person is 'superconscious' - for want of a better term.
I would also say that for an individual to glimpse the ‘Real’ behind reality, or indeed come closer to it, he or she must recognise the simple connections or correspondences on every level and which usually remain outside or on the periphery of our ‘lock-on’ focus, on what we believe about “reality” while keeping in mind that everything is a projection of one’s own mind. If successfully attained and sustained, then such a balance of mind can and will lead to the 'enlightenment experience' spoken of by mystics and those who have experienced it, but prior to it never knew such a thing existed.
However the communication of this 'enlightenment experience' to another person, is very difficult and is in danger of becoming as distorted as our complicated view of the universe, with all it’s measurements of things distanced from the observer – or should I say – distanced from the measurer who is tightly wedged within his or her own space and time creations.
True reality may not have anything in common with any of these concepts that have been conceived by minds, which have ‘briefly’ existed for a while in the three dimensions of space and time. You see the thing is we are ‘locked-on’ or ‘tuned in’ to certain parameters – being our consensus view of reality.
The parameters are set by our beliefs, and most people are indoctrinated with the belief that our reality is the One and only – i.e. everything we see, being all there is, and will ever be. The truth is, it can limit our creative potential if we are ignorant enough to believe that this reality is the only one.
To conclude, it seems that the ‘Rosenthal Effect’ can give us some explanation as to why we have two opposing factions regarding the reality of the paranormal, and how evidence can always be produced by both factions that can be used to either prove or disprove the reality of its existence. In terms of subatomic units, I suppose it’s a bit like our inability to observe the properties of both opposites at the same time.
Rosenthal could just as well have chosen individuals from both of the following groups to illustrate the effect that is associated with his name. For example:
Group No. 1, which consists of artists, psychics, mystics and occultists, advocates the reality of the paranormal.
Group No. 2, which consists of hard-nosed scientists, debunkers and pseudo- skeptics, rejects the reality of the paranormal.
Both groups perform the same experiment, which will be said to prove once and for all, the existence of paranormal phenomena , or indeed that it doesn't exist.
The result of Group 1 shows evidence of the paranormal.
The result of Group 2 shows no evidence of the paranormal at all . . . and now we can understand why.
Further, we would find that Group 1 would consist of people who are predominantly right brain oriented, and whose perceptions of reality are associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, and that Group 2 would consist of people who are predominantly left-brain oriented and whose perceptions are associated with the left hemisphere of the brain.
We could take this even further when looking at the general pattern of society as a whole:
Many so-called Non-Materialistists would be found in Group 1, and so Group 1 would be representing the energy of the ‘feminine principle.’
Again, the Materialists of society would be found in Group 2, and so Group 2 would be representing the energy of the ‘male principle.’
Now what does the Rosenthal effect tell us? Well basically, it is telling us that we are creating our own reality at a deeper level according to our mindset and beliefs - which are themselves based on our preferences - i.e., our likes and dislikes - what we extract from the 'information patterns' we call reality.
When realising this, its laughable when we know there are people like James (“the Great”) Randi, who still insist on going around trying to disprove the experimental findings of certain people – even scientists – who have “had the gall” to discover evidence of the paranormal and are writing and talking about it.
Of course these people, who say they are also skeptical but are looking for evidence of the paranormal because they have a propensity to believe in it, are creating this evidence at a deeper level. However, the evidence that does come to light shows that the paranormal 'can' and 'does' exist for some people and is as real as the reality of those in which the paranormal doesn't exist. In other words, anything and everything is possible and it is us - as the collective consciousness -who set the parameters on what "is possible" and what is "not possible" in this collective reality.
Has the penny not dropped yet? Maybe the pseudo-skeptics need to "wake up and smell the coffee".
The conspiracists would then say there's the possibility that perhaps a pseudo-skeptical person like the ‘Great Randi’ knows that we all create reality at a deeper level and maybe his 'agenda' is to divert our attention away from this fact by bringing attention to his own version or creation of reality, in which the paranormal doesn’t exist, thereby making sure we all maintain our creation of just that kind of reality set at those default parameters – which of course 'screen-out' all clues to the fact that we are creating everything – even him.
To end the same experiment by showing that the paranormal doesn’t exist, then surely the person performing the experiment must believe that the paranormal doesn’t exist.
Like many of us, perhaps Randi and people like the person performing the experiment, are self-deluded fools after all.
Maybe the biggest conspiracy is that the 'collective ego' will create people like ‘Randi’ as a means to preserve its own “guilt-free” delusion that it’s not creating all this! It’s possible that it also creates people like me to perhaps play our part in awakening the 'collective ego' to the fact that, yes, it is indeed creating all this and that we should be conscious and aware of it.
So the conclusion could be that the reason why the paranormal can and does exist for some of us, is that it serves its purpose in bringing us to the conclusion that we are - all of us - creating reality as we go along; that some of us have the energy of mind to create "outside the box - i.e., "warping" or "distorting" our own personal reality - hence paranormal phenomena. If so then it is even possible that some of us have that extra energy to alter, change and transform the parameters of the information patterns we are and experience with no idea how we do it - hence a paranormal or mystical event - the type of phenomena we experience depending on what we believe. We may even have the energy to warp the reality of those in close-proximity to us - hence a collective paranormal experience or event.
But surely people have been saying this for years – i.e., that we create our own reality. Yes some people have. But the idea that much of the surrounding reality that we experience is really composed of our own energy – and that we all lend our energy to it is compelling.
To be continued . . .
Reference:
1. Source: The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (May 6, 1992)