PRELIMINARY GROUP REPORT FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING OF SUBJECTS FROM PARAPSYCHOLOGY STUDY AT SRI

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Body:  Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200140007-0
 Preliminary Croup Report for the Psychological Testing of Subjects
 From the, Parapsycholo^v Study at Stanford Research Institute
 During late summer and early fall, six subjects were referred to me for
 testing for the parapsychology study at Stanford Research Institute.
 Three of the subjects were designated as sensitive subjects and three
 of the subjects were designated as controls.    It was planned that I
 "would c1o the testing without knowledge of which subjects were considered
 sensitive and which subjects were considered controls.  However, in the
 course of my contacts with these subjects, it proved impossible not to
 know which  subjects belonged to which group, since I was to interview
 each person in depth.  Since   personal experience with apparently extra-
 sensory perception is a fairly dramatic event, subjects could not avoid
 talking about these events and still be honest in an in-depth interview.
 Consequently, a secondary plan was developed in which I would do the
 psychological testing and write individual reports for each subject, and
 Dr. Heenan would read the test blind and see whether he could pick out
 three test records which seemed more similar to each other than the rest,
 thereby discriminating between sensitive and non-sensitive subjects.
 Dr. Ileenan has not vet reviewed the test materials and so, since a pre-
 liminary report is requested, I am giving my clinical. impressionSof the
 group data as pertains to the sensitive and control subjects.
 Intellectual Functioning.
 All of the subjects in this study'disn.laved distinctly above-average
 intellectual abilities.   Most subjects reached the superior range, and
 several of the subjects reached the gifted range.  As it happened, the
 control subjects tended to show higher average intellectual functioning
 scores than did sensitive subjects, although the difference could not be
 said to be significant, given that there were only three subjects in each
 group.   Two of the subjects from the sensitive group showed highly
 variable subtest scores within their intelligence test battery.  This is,
 some of the subskills would be extremely high and other subskills would
 be extremely low.   The variable patterns shown are consistent with
 ambivalent.motivation as regards learning tasks and academic situations.,
 I was able to spot no consistent trends as to which subskills tended to
 be high and which subskills tended to be low.  For all six subjects,
 verbal and performance skills tended to be about evenly balanced, and
 memory skills were approximately what would be expected, given the intelli-
 gence scores attained.     The number scores on memory tests as well'as the
 performances of the subjects themselves reflect a slight tendency toward
 better memory for material which is organized logically or which appears
 in a meaningful context than for rote memory material.   In the control
 group, this tendency seems less pronounced and in fact one subject showed
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 ILLEGIB
 ference in perceptual style appear not to be standardized as yet and
 so, it is difficult to follow this lead.
 -elements.  Psychological tests which are directly relevant to this dif-
 a clear preference for rote memory material.  The subjects themselves
 di  not feel that any of the intclli.i=epee test material tapped skills
 or rropensities on their hart which might be linked to their extra-
 sensory capacities, and since the patterns of strength and weakness
 within the test profiles varied so widely, I an inclined to accept
 their judgment with one possible exception.  It is possible that
 sensitive subjects tend to be holistic perceivers rather than analytic
 nerceivors; that is, to perceive in Gestalt rather than compartmentalized
 Personality FFunctioning.
 P;hen looked at from the point of view of psychopathology, the indi-
 cators both in projective and in objective testing do not appear tome
 to show marked trends, either for the six subjects taken together or for
 the subjects in each groan.   There does appear to he an interesting
 similarity in defensive style, particularly when this is taken together
 w'_th a similarity in interests and vocational aptitude-, which can be seen
 in a large number of the subjects both in sensitive and control groups.
 To elaborate, all six subjects tended to have high feminine scores on
 the masculinity-femininity scale of the M.M.P.I.    That scale does not
 measure sexual. orientation but rather,sex role stereotype.  For example,
 a person who is highly active in expressing his aggression, who is self
 assertive and who adopts "masculine" -interests in, say, sports, mechanics,
 etc., is likely to get a high masculine score; a person who tends to be
 fairly passive in expressing aggression, even manipulative, who tends to
 be interested in the arts, in music, in aesthetic sensitivities, is likely
 to gain a high feminine score.    Both the men and the women in this group
 of subjects tended to have high feminine scores.  The trend is seen again
 in the vocational aptitude   survey, the Strong Vocational Interest Blank,
 wherein all of the subjects tended to achieve  high scores in music, art
 and writing, but particularly in writing was this- consistent.  The score
 on writing aptitude appeared to be above average for the general popula-
 tion in each subject and for several of the subjects it was one of the
 highest scores obtained.   These two trends in the objective personality
 test data can be compared with another trend found in the projective
 test data, namely on the Rorschach.   Here, the responses of the subjects
 tended to emphasize animal or human movement and to de-emphasize color.
 This pattern is common in people who tend to be introspective, to have
 a rich inner fantasy life, and in fact to prefer that kind of expression
 of their emotions to interpersonal expression.  The capacity to stand
 hack from one's feelings, observe them, analyze them, even savor them,
 is common among artists and particularly among writers.
 Unfortunately, two of the subjects from the sensitive group,were
 highly defensive about test-taking and their defensiveness was most
 pronounced in the projective personality tests.  The result was that
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 they pave very minimal record s, very few responses, and were close-mouthed
 in Whin, about their regnonses.   Hence, the pattern to which I refer can
 he seen more clearly in the control subjects than in the sensitive subjects
 even thour'h it anncars to occur for all six subiects.  Currently I am
 doing an item-by-item analysis of the subject's answers to the masculinity-
 femininity scale of the 'i.'I.P.I. to see whether the high scores obtained
 are the product of interest Patterns, aggression patterns, or both, and
 whether the subjects tended-to check the same items in order to achieve
 their high scores or not.    Closer content and sequential analysis of
 the Rorschach records may also he instructive in this regard.
 In the course of the testing, the control subjects began to tell me that
 as they participated in the S.R.I. study, they anpeared to be. developing
 more and more sensitivity on the experiments performed and each was not
 certain that he should be. Properly classified as a control subject.  In
 talking with Dr. Puthoff, I learned that they did appear to be showing
 some sensitivity but that their performances were not reliable and so:.
 they still could be said to be importantly different from the sensitive
 subjects.  If the sensitive subjects could be induced to be less defensive
 in test-taking, it is possible that their records would show a pattern
 which could he distinguished from that of the control subjects.  Since
 that is not the case, we are left with a dilemma.    A tendency toward
 artistic interests, a rich fantasy life and an introversive  style of
 emotional expression may be accidental in all of these six subjects.
 It may be characteristic-of persons who are willing to participate in
 parapsychological studies.   It may be characteristic of persons who have
 some extrasensory capacity, whether great or small, or it may relate to
 some other variable which happens to be common to these six subjects.
 At least four of the subjects in this stud describe to me an interest
 in scientology and two of them indicate that they have been involved in
 the Church of. Scientology for some time.  This commonality may account
 for the similarity described above.
 Should the Pattern of emotional style and aesthetic interest prove relevant
 to extrasensory capacity, it would seem that the Rorschach gets at the most
 fundamental level of this quality.  The objective tests are more likely to
 he  measuring the end products of that fundamental level of emotional ex-
 pression.  Since my reading of projective test material is likely to be
 colored by my acquaintance with the subjects and what they said about them-
 selves. I will be interested to see whether I)r. Heenan can discern the
 same pattern, and for my own curiosity I would like to be able to test
 the sensitive subjects again, without them having read this report, to see
 whether I can put them more at ease on a second contact and get more pro-
 ductive records from them.  Two of these subjects said frankly that they
 were alienated at the thought of psychological testing because their
 experience was that people with extrasensory capacity were written off as
 nuts and that psychologists and psychiatrists always examined them with an
 eye toward any pathology they could discover.  If they could be reassured
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 thit that was not the point of interest and at the same time not be
 coached as to what kinds of responses I was interested in, another
 session of projective testing might be productive.
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