In order to assess the psychological state of the percipient at the time of the Ganzfeld session, we constructed a rating system for analyzing the mentation reports of the subject in terms of a number of discrete indicators of emotional, physical and cognitive functioning. Thirty-six scales were developed and manualized to a satisfactory level of inter-rater reliability. Transcripts of 364 ganzfeld sessions drawn from several different studies from 3 different laboratories were scored on all dimensions by at least 3 independent raters who were blind to the subject's identity, the actual target content, and the degree of ESP success of the session. To guard against over-analysis, a composite cluster was defined a priori made up of several scales that were most strongly expected to predict scoring, and this was tested against rank scores in a relatively large pilot sub-set. This cluster did predict performance significantly. A slightly revised version of the cluster was tested against ranks scores in a smaller confirmatory sample, with a roughly comparable degree of association found which was not significant given the smaller N. Post hoc analysis made it clear that the cluster predicted performance well for subjects in both sub-sets who were not professionals in the performing arts, but did not predict well for the artists. In light of this, single-scale correlational analyses were conducted of the data as a whole, and for the artist and non-artist samples separately. It was found that, in general, subjects tended to hit when their scores suggeste a very positive adjustment, and when imagery was allowed o develop in a very free, and personally involving way. Subjects who missed showed more signs of anxiety and obsessive attempts to control the experience. Subjects whose imagery showed signs of regressed reasoning and primitive affect scored well provided that anxiety was ow, but not when it was high. The relationships found in a subset of highly creative subjects (who scored quite highly) was generally the same as those in the data of the larger, less-creative population, but differed primarily in the importance of reports of physical experiences. Expressions of physical discomfort, in particular, were strongly associated with psi-missing for this group. The less-creative group did better when there were reports of positive physical experiences in the session, but this was not the case for the artists. The expression of odd, particularly "altered" physical experiences, which was expected to predict hitting in both groups, did not do so in either.

The measures also provided sensible discriminations between the more- and less-creative subjects, irrespective of ESP scores. Protocols of the artists contained more images and expressed less pleasurable physical experience, and their imagery differed in being more colorful and active, showing more tolerance of negative affect, expressing more regressed types of reasoning and more primary process emotion, and in showing less defensive constraint and intellectualization. These latter findings suggest that these measures show promise in addressing several questions of general psychological interest to researchers concerned with the Ganzfeld.