| Abstract/Results: | RESULTS:
These two studies employ the cognitive DMILS protocol in Bali, Indonesia, first introduced by Braud, Schafer, McNeill, and Guerra (1995) and replicated by Brady and Morris (1997). The psi task consisted in a person in one room (Helper) facilitating the attention focusing meditation of a person in another room (Helpee). A computer in the Helper’s room randomly selected the order of tasks for the Helper in each pair of periods, (resulting in 8 Help and 8 Control periods). During the Help periods, the Helper focused attention on a lighted candle and intended for the Helpee to increase her focus on a lighted candle in her room, while not meditation during the Control periods. The primary hypothesis, confirmed by both previous studies, was that the sum of button presses (indicating the mind had wandered) in the Control conditions would be significantly greater than in the Help condition. Two studies were carried out in Bali to see whether meditation training had a positive effect on the psi results.
In Study 1, Suryani trained 20 unpaid participants in meditation for two and a half months. Twenty untrained participants brought the total number of participants to 40. These were divided into 10 teams of 4, with two trained and two untrained participants in each group. Each session had 4 runs, one with two trained participants, one with two untrained participants, one with a trained Helper and an untrained Helpee, and one with an untrained Helper and a trained Helpee. The primary hypothesis was supported by there being fewer button presses in the Help condition than the Control condition (t(37)=2.151, p<.025, one-tailed, Cohen’s d=.36, power(at beta=.2)=.33). Analysis suggested that the greatest psi success occurred with trained Helpers and high need untrained Helpees.
Study 2 used 30 unpaid participants meeting the conditions above. 60 runs were carried out, again yielding significant results, t(119)=3.161, p<.005 (one-tailed), d=.21, power = .29. However, the significant results do not seem to have derived from using meditation as a variable.
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