Constructing a new age "energy" test, suggestions and help appreciated.

[Kuko 4000]

I have a friend who works pretty much as an all-around new age healer. She is also excited about testing her various "abilites", and even the MDC, but we agreed that it's better that we test her first in a homemade test before we contact the Finnish Skeptics, etc.

This is what she wants to test first:

CLAIM:

She lays on her back and the healer places his hands about 10 cm away from both sides of her head, no moving of the hands, no touching, nor anything similar to message her. In two minutes time she can differentiate between a lay person and a healer only through the "energy" the healer sends to her. The healer is someone she knows and trusts to be a genuine "energy" healer.

So far, these are the details we have already agreed that she is 100% comfortable with:

* Eyes blinfolded

* Ear protectors

* Nose plugs

* Incenses

* 2x videocameras for overall picture and for close up of the action

* The lay person and the healer must approach her head in the same way, no extra or sudden movements allowed

* The hands of the lay person and the healer have to remain at a certain maximum lenght from the head, no hand movements allowed

* Only two persons in the room at a same time = the claimant and the healer / lay person

She says she expects a 100% success rate, but I've informed her that I'd be impressed in something markedly better than chance to push her case forward. We haven't yet contacted the healer, but she is confident that all this is ok for him too, if not, we just change something. The claim is pretty clear and straightforward, now we just need to come up with a working method to test it, any comments or further suggestions? We would appreciate any help especially in designing the details, structure and math of the test method, how many times must she succeed to markedly beat chance, does the room temperature matter, how many different lay persons would be good, is one enough, it is already agreed that I can be the lay person, etc., etc.

 

[Blue Mountain]

One thought: how will she know when the two minute "timer" starts and ends?

 

[Kuko 4000]

We haven't put much thought on that just yet, I hope we manage something reasonable.

First idea: she has her phone in her pocket, set on vibration, every time the lay person / healer is ready in place, we call her, she lifts her hand to let us know she knows it's time. Further, she could also lift her hand whenever she is ready before the 2 minutes has passed.

 

[Elizabeth I]

I'm glad your friend wants to scientifically test this concept, but does he/she know that a nine-year-old girl pretty much already nailed this particular test?

 

[Kuko 4000]

I was hoping to suggest the same test that Emily did, but she wanted to start with this, because she says head is the strongest place to register the "energies". I told her about previous success rates in similar tests. She wants to go through with it and thinks she can pass it.

 

[Loss Leader]

Good start.

Be sure to determine whether it is the layperson or healer completely randomly - a coin flip, a die roll or a random number generator. Be sure she knows that it will not necessarily be 5 and 5 but could be the healer every time or the lay person every time.

Be sure to do an "open" test, where she knows which person it is before she makes her guess. This will allow her to agree that she can sense the difference under test conditions. She will be unable to argue that the test conditions somehow disrupted the energy flow or something.

It would be very good if there could be a small piece of cardboard, glass or plexiglass between the person's hand and her head. This will rule out many things (even skin heat) that might help her tell which person is which.

The chance of guessing correctly 10 times is 2 to the 10th power or 1 in 1,024. That's pretty low odds. You can also demand that she guess right 9 times out of 10 in two separate trials. The odds of doing that is 1 in 262,144 (I think). Now, those are some serious odds.

 

[roger]

It's okay for a home test, but to have her know the healer is just asking for collusion.

for the home test, add an "unblinded" session first. No, I don't mean no eye protection, I mean you say "first the healer will do it for 2 minutes, then the lay person. Let us know if the setup is okay and you were able to feel energy in the first case but not the second".

If she is honest with herself, when she fails when she doesn't know who is performing the 'healing' she'll realize that she was deluding herself, rather than fault the test setup in some way.

 

[Kuko 4000]

Good start.

Be sure to determine whether it is the layperson or healer completely randomly - a coin flip, a die roll or a random number generator. Be sure she knows that it will not necessarily be 5 and 5 but could be the healer every time or the lay person every time.

Be sure to do an "open" test, where she knows which person it is before she makes her guess. This will allow her to agree that she can sense the difference under test conditions. She will be unable to argue that the test conditions somehow disrupted the energy flow or something.

It would be very good if there could be a small piece of cardboard, glass or plexiglass between the person's hand and her head. This will rule out many things (even skin heat) that might help her tell which person is which.

The chance of guessing correctly 10 times is 2 to the 10th power or 1 in 1,024. That's pretty low odds. You can also demand that she guess right 9 times out of 10 in two separate trials. The odds of doing that is 1 in 262,144 (I think). Now, those are some serious odds.

Excellent points and a very helpful post, thanks Loss Leader.

Coin flip it is.

Open test, check.

Don't know what she thinks about the cardboard or glass between the hands and the head, something to think about more for sure.

I think we'll perform two separate trials, 100% was her claim, but I think I'll settle for much less to construct further tests.

 

[Kuko 4000]

It's okay for a home test, but to have her know the healer is just asking for collusion.

for the home test, add an "unblinded" session first. No, I don't mean no eye protection, I mean you say "first the healer will do it for 2 minutes, then the lay person. Let us know if the setup is okay and you were able to feel energy in the first case but not the second".

If she is honest with herself, when she fails when she doesn't know who is performing the 'healing' she'll realize that she was deluding herself, rather than fault the test setup in some way.

Good point, thanks roger.

ETA: at first I misunderstood your point, but it's in fact the same what Loss Leader offered. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Pope130]

Make sure the room has a very solid floor and/or an isolated surface for the subject to lay on. Walking rhythm or slight shifts in weight could be communicated to the subject.

Robert

 

[Kuko 4000]

Make sure the room has a very solid floor and/or an isolated surface for the subject to lay on. Walking rhythm or slight shifts in weight could be communicated to the subject.

Robert

She will lie o) on a professional new-age healer bed, good point on the solid floor. Thanks.

 

[IMST]

If possible, get a lay person that is about the same size/shape as the healer. They should wear nearly identical shoes. Most ear plugs only reduce sound a couple orders of magnitude, so you have to be careful about what she hears.

 

[Coveredinbeeees]

I have a few ideas to add to the good ones already mentioned.

If you have an office char with wheels and a floor it rolls easily upon (or a wheelchair ideally) you could have the healer (real or placebo) sit in the chair and wheel them into position, eliminating clues from footsteps.

A bit of Vicks vapo rub applied to the hands of the healers (real and placebo) should eliminate any personal odour.

Depending upon the shape of the bridge of the subject's nose, you may have to tape down some parts of the blindfold to prevent her from actually seeing out. Watch to see if she tilts her head in any funny ways during the test.

Ask if she can perform the test while listening to music through headphones. This might be more effective at eliminating telltale sounds such as breathing or deep humming from the healers than ear plugs.

Have the healers chew on a breath mint prior to the test and wear a dust mask during the test. This eliminates clues from breath smell as well as subtle blowing on the forehead of the subject.

If you were to incorporate the above into your test I would suggest removing only the blindfold during the non-blind test. This will demonstrate that the music and vapo rub are not a significant distraction.

 

[Kuko 4000]

If possible, get a lay person that is about the same size/shape as the healer. They should wear nearly identical shoes. Most ear plugs only reduce sound a couple orders of magnitude, so you have to be careful about what she hears.

She agreed on these, what people use on the construction areas, etc.:

http://images.google.fi/images?hl=fi&q=ear+protectors&gbv=2

I don't know the correct word, so I just used ear protectors, we can use normal professional ear plugs under these as well. We will also try them first to make sure how much noise gets through (this is a home test so I guess that will have to do). We agreed that we can also play music to cover potential light noises. Maybe we should put somekind of a carpet on the solid floor and ask the lay person and the healer to take off their shoes and also decide how they walk, stop, turn and walk back.

 

[Loss Leader]

There shouldn't be much sound. All communication should be by prearranged signals. You can gesture wildly at the healer and lay person. You could signal her that a new round is starting by tapping her ankle. She could then signal you by raising her right hand with closed fist or 1 finger raised (to let you know if she is guessing the healer or non-healer). An ankle tap tells her you got the message and another tap tells her it's time to start the next round.

It should be very, very easy to do without talking.

 

[Madalch]

Why not have both the healer and the placebo sit on chairs behind her, and she has to tell which one has reached out to put his hand behind her head? That eliminates footsteps.

 

[Loss Leader]

Depending upon the shape of the bridge of the subject's nose, you may have to tape down some parts of the blindfold to prevent her from actually seeing out. Watch to see if she tilts her head in any funny ways during the test.

Definitely go all-out with the blindfold - taping cotton pads over the eyes, then a blindfold, then blacked-out ski-goggles.

This is the problem with testing the head as opposed to the hands. You can't just put people behind a cardboards screen. But if this is the only way she says she can be successful, I think it's important to respect that.

 

[Kuko 4000]

Coveredinbeeees, EXCELLENT points, much appreciated, especially the blowing, I though James Hydrick was enough to make sure I'd never forget that point in any tests

 

[Pope130]

She will lie o) on a professional new-age healer bed, good point on the solid floor. Thanks.

Thanks for the correction, it looked wrong when I typed it but my spell checker doesn't catch when I correctly spell the wrong word.

"I'm an American Sergeant, not an English Major."

Robert

 

[Kuko 4000]

Why not have both the healer and the placebo sit on chairs behind her, and she has to tell which one has reached out to put his hand behind her head? That eliminates footsteps.

True, good point. It would make it easier for them to complain later that the "energies" were somehow mixed, though. I think we can proceed with walking from another room, if it looks to be a problem we'll use something like this, thanks for the idea.