Abstract

Conducted a 36-session direct mental interaction with living systems with agents attempting to activate and calm the electrodermal activity (EDA) of a receiver, at pseudo-random intervals. Both participants were housed in special electromagnetically and acoustically shielded environments. Six experimenters took turns acting as agent and receiver for the 1st half of the study. During the 2nd half, experimenters worked with other friends and colleagues. Results indicate a non-significantly greater level of EDA during the activate periods than the calm. In the 18 sessions conducted among the 6 trainee experimenters also acting as agent and/or receiver, the results show slightly greater EDA during calming periods. In the 18 sessions where friends/colleagues participated, greater EDA was found during the activate periods, with the difference between activate and calm approaching significance. A significant release-of-effort effect was found for the non-experimenter populatio!n, and in both populations the release-of-effort effects were larger than the primary effects. These findings suggest the possible utility of longer interaction periods and advise against the use of shorter rest periods.