An Investigation of the 'I Ching' Using the Q-Sort Method and an RNG-PK Design: I. Four Possible Psi Predictors

Abstract

An attempt was made to emulate a paranormal event (i.e., synchronicity) in the laboratory by instructing participants to construct a representation of their inner mental (cognitive/emotional) states using a Q-Sort Grid in which 64 'I Ching' descriptor-pairs were thoughtfully placed (i.e., ranked from -7 to +7), followed by the creation of an 'outer event using a Random Number Generator (RNG) to generate an I Ching' hexagram with an associated reading that is rated for meaningfulness. There were four hypothesized psi-predictors: (i) 'pro attitude' measured on the Pro Attitude Scale (Thalbourne & Storm, in press); (ii) paranormal belief measured on the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale (Thalbourne, 1995), where 'sheep' are believers in psychic ability, and 'goats' are skeptics; (iii) trait reactance (i.e., resistance to compliance; hypothesized to be detrimental to psi) measured on the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale (Hong & Faedda, 1996); and (iv) Meaningfulness (of 'I Ching' hexagram readings). The Q-Sort task did not yield any significant effects, although as expected Q-Sort scores were positive for sheep. There were a number of sheep-goat psi effects, including a significantly high mean RNG-PK score for sheep. Of the four psi predictors, Meaningfulness correlated marginally significantly with Direct-Hitting (scores of +7), and significantly with Binary-Hitting (scores of +6 and +7). Scores on the Rasch-scaled version of the ASGS (Lange & Thalbourne, 2002) correlated significantly with Pro Attitude and Meaningfulness. There was a 24% success rate at the .05 level, and a significant 72% of our tests were in the directions hypothesized. It is argued that the Q-Sort Grid may need simplification, and participants should give feedback on RNG-PK task complexity.