Psychokinesis and the Unseen World
Micro-psychokinesis involves the influence of consciousness on atomic particles. In certain micro-PK experiments conducted by Helmut Schmidt, groups of subjects were typically able to alter the probabilities of quantum events from 50% to between 51 and 52%, and a few individuals managed over 54% (Broughton, 1991, p. 177). Experiments at the PEAR lab at Princeton University have yielded a smaller shift of I part in 10,000 (Jahn & Dunne, 1987). Some researchers have invoked the theory of the collapse of wave functions by consciousness in order to explain such effects. It is argued that in micro-PK, in contrast to ordinary perception, the observing subject helps to specify what the outcome of the collapse of the wave function will be, perhaps by some sort of informational process (Broughton, 1991. pp. 177-81). Eccles follows a similar approach in explaining how our minds act on our own brains. However, the concept of wave-function collapse is not essential to explaining mind-matter interaction. We could equally well adopt the standpoint that subatomic particles are ceaselessly flichering into and out of physical existence. and that the outcome of the process is modifiable by our will - a psychic force.