Abstract/Results: | ABSTRACT:
The aim of the present study (Bial Grant 07/06) was to find evidence that a paranormal process undescores the I Ching, an ancient Chinese system of divination. Traditionally, users throw three coins, six times, to generate one of 64 six-line symbols called ‘hexagrams’, and then they consult the associated divinatory reading. Prior to throwing the coins, and in response to emotional or cognitive states of mind, a total of 150 participants pre-selected from the Hexagram Descriptor Form 16 of 64 descriptor-pairs that epitomized the meanings associated with the corresponding hexagrams. If one of the descriptor-pairs matched the outcome reading, it was deemed a hit (PMCE = .25). Participants also rated the meaningfulness of their readings. It was theorised that hexagram targeting may accord with participants’ time perspectives: either a present time perspective (PTP) or a future time perspective (FTP). Time perspective was derived from the Time Perspective Inventory (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). It was hypothesised that PTP types prefer first-hexagrams, and FTP types prefer second hexagrams. As hypothesised, the hit rate for PTP types on first-hexagram hitting (30%) exceeded the hit rate for FTP types (25%), although the difference was not significant. The hit rate for FTP types on second-hexagram hitting (22%) did not exceed the hit rate for PTP types (27%). Hit rates were above chance on first-hexagram hitting (25.3%), but below chance on second hexagram hitting (24.6%). Neither effect was significant. First-hexagram hitters rated their readings significantly higher (73%) on meaningfulness than first-hexagram missers (65%), p = .04. A marginally significant aggregated hexagram hit rate of 27% across six I Ching studies was also found (p = .072). Two judges rated the 64 descriptor pairs of the Hexagram Descriptor Form. Mean descriptor-pair ratings ranged between 60% and 82%. The experimental I Ching method was tested against three control methods. For the control methods, only 4.5% of the results were significant or near-significant which could all be attributed to chance, but 14% of test results using the experimental method were significant or near-significant. Evidence was weak that time perspective predicted hexagram outcomes, but there was some statistical evidence that the I Ching method of choice produced non-chance outcomes, and participants who saw meaningfulness in their readings tended to successfully predict their I Ching hexagram.
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