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Aura viewing: Need help negotiating a protocol

JLam

Proud Skepkid Parent
JLam
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
Messages
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I am currently corresponding with a woman who claims to be able to see auras. She has stated that she is willing to be tested for the Million Dollar Challenge.

I would like to enlist the help of the forum in negotiating a test protocol. I have my own ideas, but I'd like to hear yours.

My idea is this. This woman claims that she can see an aura being emitted by a person even when the person is standing behind a wall. My suggestion is this:

Let's say that the person whose aura is being "viewed" is 5 feet 11 inches tall. First of all, we do a control test, where the subject (the one being viewed) is put in full view and the applicant confirms that she can see the subject's aura. Then the applicant is taken out of the room, and the subject either leaves the room through another door, or stands behind a 6 foot tall barrier (exactly 1 inch taller than the subject). The applicant is then brought into the room and is asked whether or not the subject is behind the barrier, based on whether or not the aura is visible. Get it right 95-100% of the time and we've got ourselves a winner.

Those are my ideas. What do you think? I hope to help her make her application and see her through the testing process (sort of a "skeptic buddy" I guess).

I also hope to bring her into the discussion here on this forum, so please, no disparaging remarks.

Thanks for your help.
 
I've invited her here, and hopefully she'll post here soon introducing herself.
 
Not only do you need the applicant to confirm that she can see the aura of the person being viewed but you need to have the applicant confirm that she can see the aura when she KNOWS that the person is behind the wall.
 
All what the applicant needs to do is listen for the subjust's breathing or other sounds. Slighest sound and the test is invalid. Also how many tests do you plan to do? What is the probablility of guessing right 19 out of 20 times?
 
Perhaps wearing a device that would prevent hearing the subject. Maybe earmuffs similar to what one would wear during target practice or while working on an airport tarmac?

Not sure on the probability of getting it right 19 out of 20 times. We would need to consult a statistician.
 
To get 20 / 20 right by guessing would be equal to 2 to the power of 20, which is equal to about one in a million. There are 20 ways to get 19 / 20 right so that makes it one in 50 thousand. This, I believe, will not be good enough. Do this test 50 thousand times and it will be done successfully about one time.

Do two tests of 20 with only one error per test is one in 50 thousand squared or one in 2,500 million. This may be good enough for a preliminary test.

Can somebody please check my calculations?
 
I don't know if this is much help, but I found this page (TERRIBLE background, so I'll post the bit that caught my eye):

http://www.genepool.addr.com/touch.html

One paragraph that I thought may be relevant:

"In 1995, an experiment was conducted by a woman named Emily Rosa to test this claim. She devised a very clever double-blind test to determine whether TT practitioners could distinguish between a healthy human wrist and an injured human wrist. There were two phases to the experiment. First, the subject with the injured wrist stuck his wrist in an opaque plastic sheathe while in full view of the TT practitioner to make sure it was possible for the practitioner to detect the aura through the sheathe. In all of these tests the practitioner scored with 100% accuracy.

Next, the subject was moved behind a wall with a plastic sheathe through it. Only the subject knew when the wrist was in the sheathe and when it wasn't; neither the TT practitioner nor the experimenters did (hence the double-blind.) The result, in 280 tests involving 21 different TT practitioners, was that not one of them scored any better than chance. Whether they knew it or not, the practitioners were guessing. The most astounding thing about this test, though, is that Emily Rosa was only nine years old at the time. This was a class science project. The study has since been written up in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

http://www.phact.org/e/tt/
ooh! on this page it says:

"On Nov. 8, 1996, James Randi, Bob Glickman, Ed Gracely, DeeAnne Wymer, Tom Napier, Eric Krieg, Bela Scheiber and others administered a double-blind test of a TT practitioner's ability to read energy fields. Despite a large nationwide effort to recruit subjects and the offering of a $700,000 reward for successful testing, only one person volunteered. This test was supported by the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, PhACT . a group promoting the free exchange of ideas and fair scientific testing to advance knowledge. As of 7/99 no one seems willing to demonstrate claims of TT under proper test conditions. "

So there's a historical precedence, if there are similar notions behind having an aura and the energy field that can be manipulated by a TT practitioner... I guess they take the notion of an aura one step further and say they can alter health states with it...

I don't know if this aura notion is the same as TT though, in saying all of this. But I'd like to see what is suggested. :)
 
I don't think my correspondent is making any sort of claims about TT. She just claims to be able to see auras. That's it.

I have advised her to conduct an informal experiment on her own to make sure it works.
 
jlam4911 said:
Perhaps wearing a device that would prevent hearing the subject. Maybe earmuffs similar to what one would wear during target practice or while working on an airport tarmac?
Click to expand...
Or use a set up where the two participants are in separate rooms with a window between them. Like a police lineup.
 
Easier in some ways: if the subject claims to distinguish between auras, have them try to tell whether person A or person B is behind a wall (both having been presented beforehand in clear).

Let there be one of them behind it each time; you can take her in and out of the room, or have A/B swap in some undetectable fashion.

Modified Ganzfeld (sp?) perhaps?
 
We have not discussed her being able to differentiate between auras, so I don't know if she would make that claim.

I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible, however. Since the JREF recognizes the mere existence of auras to be paranormal, then I propose that we test using only one person. I'm a big fan of simplicity. Occam's test protocol, if you will. ;)
 
rjh01 said:
To get 20 / 20 right by guessing would be equal to 2 to the power of 20, which is equal to about one in a million. There are 20 ways to get 19 / 20 right so that makes it one in 50 thousand. This, I believe, will not be good enough. Do this test 50 thousand times and it will be done successfully about one time.

Do two tests of 20 with only one error per test is one in 50 thousand squared or one in 2,500 million. This may be good enough for a preliminary test.

Can somebody please check my calculations?
Click to expand...

The prelim only requires odds of 1000 to 1. 10 of ten would do it.
 
rjh01 said:
Where does it say that? I checked the Index, Application and FAQ. I could find nothing that said how good the prelim had to be. What have I missed?
Click to expand...

Look up past protocols for dowsing tests.
 
Good morning.
Recently I read an article about synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition in which the senses fuse. Hearing colors and tasting sounds and such. The article, that I can’t find at the moment, suggested that this condition might explain where the “seeing auras” thing began. That makes some sense to me.
Imagine growing up with this condition. What if you were surrounded by family and friends that considered this "a gift".

Here is another article on the subject.
seeing sounds and feeling tastes
JPK
 
JPK said:
Good morning.
Recently I read an article about synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition in which the senses fuse. Hearing colors and tasting sounds and such. The article, that I can’t find at the moment, suggested that this condition might explain where the “seeing auras” thing began. That makes some sense to me.
Imagine growing up with this condition. What if you were surrounded by family and friends that considered this "a gift".

Here is another article on the subject.
seeing sounds and feeling tastes
JPK
Click to expand...

Plausible as a theory - i.e. that you synthesize otherwise-mundane knowledge into that perception.

But it'd have to be tossed out if, e.g., the subject can see them through walls, consistently with the truth.
 
If I were you I'd ask this claimant if they can indeed tell the difference between auras. If they can, Saizai's proposal seems to be good. I'd only add that the 2 test subjects should be of similar weight & walk with no shoes on.
If they can't tell the difference, then have a long partition setup in a room basically dividing it in half & have the floor on both sides marked off into 1 foot segments. Have the claimant on one side, ear protection in place, and have participants walk along the other side. Roll a pair of dice to see how far the subject should walk before they stop behind the barrier. Wait a few seconds to allow for time to walk to the far end of the barrier in every trial, then ask the claimant where the subject has stopped.
A score of 9/10 with a +/- range of one foot could be considered a success.
 
teck49, a test with a binary outcome (present/absent) is better and simpler than judging how close the "guess" is to actuality.
 
Very true, but can you eliminate all variables associated with a person entering a room & walking up behind a barrier vs. no one entering a room at all?
 
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