Some time ago a good friend, Hugh, asked me if I would participate with him in a parapsychology experiment at the Rhine Research Center in Durham. Hugh explained that the Rhine Research Center was a reputable institution that studied consciousness and parapsychology. He told me that he had been recruited to be a subject in an experiment to determine if pairs of creative people who knew each other could communicate telepathically with greater success than pairs of random people.
Hugh was (and remains) the most rational, pragmatic, and honest person that I ever met. Therefore, I was not surprised when he candidly told me that he thought the proposed experiment was bullshit. He thought the entire idea of mental telepathy was unproven nonsense. His motivation to participate in the study, he said, was to help disprove the ridiculous hypothesis. The content of the study and Hugh’s skepticism were enough to motivate me to participate.
The study required an initial meeting at the Rhine Research Center in which Hugh and I were interviewed and then asked to complete detailed questionnaires. The questionnaires asked about our personality characteristics and personal preferences. There were lots of questions about how Hugh and I knew each other. In the meeting a researcher explained that in our subsequent session we would each be isolated in separate rooms and given an assignment related to telepathically communicating a specific message. After we left the meeting we stood in the parking lot and talked for a few minutes. I was impressed with Hugh’s commitment to follow the expectations of the research design despite his reservations about the overall merit of the study.
A few nights later Hugh and I returned for the experiment. He was placed in a comfortable chair in a sound proof sensory deprivation room. I remained in the room long enough to watch as his eyes were tightly covered to restrict any light. His ears were covered with head phones. A small microphone was attached to his shirt. In front of Hugh was a TV monitor. The researcher explained to Hugh that he would be guided into a state of deep relaxation by a voice in the head phones. Once in a deep relaxed state he would be asked to receive communication from me. He was told to verbally “free associate” his thoughts into the microphone so that I could hear through my headset what he was experiencing and know if I was making progress.
The researcher then escorted me to a room on another floor of the building. My assignment was to watch a looped video of a group of cute Japanese snow monkeys as they gently moved around in a semi-frozen body of water. In front of me were pencils, markers, crayons, and paper. I was told to watch the same 2-minute scene over and over while attempting to communicate what I was watching to Hugh. I could use any strategies that occurred to me to communicate including using the materials in front of me to draw what I was watching. Headphones were placed over my ears so that I could hear Hugh’s comments about what he was experiencing. If I stumbled on a communication strategy that produced images of snow monkeys in Hugh’s running commentary then I would know I was doing something right.
The researcher left the room and I watched the video many times. I drew pictures of snow monkeys. I strained to concentrate on the idea of snooow monkeeey. I tried to imagine my brain waves synchronizing with Hugh’s brain waves. I tried every mental gimmick that I could think of to communicate the snow monkey theme to Hugh. I heard nothing in Hugh’s comments to suggest I was making any headway. This part of the experiment went on for about 45 minutes.
My part was then complete. Hugh, however, had to be tested. He was asked to watch several short, unrelated videos. He was told that one of the videos was the one I had been watching and he was to attempt to identify it. I could hear Hugh in my headset as he commented on each of the five videos he was watching. He watched all five videos and then rank ordered them based on his level of certainty. Snow Monkeys came in fourth. Hugh had accomplished his mission. He had disproven the hypothesis of the study.
Hugh and I knew that there were many other pairs of people who would be subjects in the same experiment and that all the results would be combined and statistically analyzed before conclusions would be drawn. However, for the two of us there was plenty of evidence to debunk the idea of mental telepathy. I did not express it to Hugh at the time but I did experience a little ego-driven disappointment that we could not do it. As we left the Rhine Center that night we agreed that the experiment had been a fun and interesting experience.
Later that night the experience became more interesting. I got an email from Hugh. He told me that a day or so prior to the experiment he had stopped by the Durham public library and picked up a few books and movies. When he got home from the experiment he grabbed one of the movies to watch while he prepared dinner. It was a National Geographic program. As he watched he saw a presentation on Japanese snow monkeys. It was the identical scene that was used in the experiment.
I was stunned for a moment. What were the chances of Hugh unconsciously picking up that video a few days prior to the experiment? I wondered if there might be aspects of telepathic communication that were not even considered in the experiment. When I talked to Hugh he brought me back to the reality most of us have come to accept. He considered the Telepathic Snow Monkeys to be just one of life's many strange coincidences.
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