It was an item on the daily NPR news magazine last week - after a recap
of the sustained experimental failure to support the idea of prayer on
behalf of an (unfamiliar) third party. This time though, the basis was
testing the possibility of a person in a loving relationship being able
to influence a loved one.
The test subject was wired for the usual physiological measures:
galvanic skin response, pulse rate, blood pressure....
...and in a separate isolated room a partner, asked to concentrate
loving thoughts of good-will at times paced by a terminal which played
an image of the partner at the specified random intervals.
This sort of arrangement is easily amenable to comparing subject
responses at null times and comparing with (presumably) elicited
responses, I thought.
The radio commentator reported significant correlations occurring within
a second or two of the onset of partner concentration. Described as 1 in
10,000 probability of occurring by chance. I took this to mean
results significant at the 0.01% level.
Curious!