Rupert Sheldrake - Anticipation Of Telephone Calls (eBook).pdf - SHELDRAKE Rupert - insideyourdream13

Telepathy _ California Survey

Journal of Parapsychology 65, 145-156 (2001)

THE ANTICIPATION OF TELEPHONE CALLS: A SURVEY IN CALIFORNIA

By David Jay Brown and Rupert Sheldrake

It is not uncommon for people to telephone friends or relations who say that they were just thinking of calling them. Likewise, many people

have had the experience of thinking of a particular person, with whom they have not spoken to for a while, who then calls them on the

telephone later the same day. Some domestic animals, notably dogs and cats, also seem to anticipate telephone calls from particular

people, their owners, while ignoring calls from other people (Sheldrake, 1999).

Some of these experiences might be explicable in terms of chance coincidence; but others might depend on telepathy, which is what many

people who have had these experiences believe. Surprisingly, this well-known phenomenon has been almost completely neglected by

psychical researchers and parapsychologists.

To find out how common this type of experience is we conducted a telephone survey of randomly selected households in Santa Cruz

County, California. Two previous telephone surveys in England, one in London and the other in Greater Manchester, indicated that this type

of experience occurs quite frequently (Sheldrake, 2000). In both surveys, more than half the respondents said they had felt that someone

was about to telephone them just before they did so. We wanted to find out if this phenomenon was similarly common in an American

population. We also asked respondents if they had had other kinds of seemingly telepathic experiences.

. In a previous survey in Santa Cruz about perceptive pets, we found that significantly more pet owners said they had had a psychical

experience than people without pets (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998). Also in the English surveys, there was a tendency for more pet owners to

say they had anticipated telephone calls than people without pets (Sheldrake, 2000). To find out whether these observations were

repeatable, in this survey we also asked people whether or not they had a pet

We conclude by discussing ways in which seemingly telepathic telephone calls can be investigated empirically.

Method

Data were collected by means of telephone interviews conducted by David Brown and Sherry Hall (D.B. and S.H.), following a standard

questionnaire format. D.B. conducted 173 of these interviews and S.H. 27. The pattern of responses obtained by the two interviewers was

very similar, and there were no statistically significant differences between them.

The households surveyed were in and around Santa Cruz (population 52,700) in north-west California. Santa Cruz was chosen because it

is where D.B. lives, and calling within the local area helped to minimize the cost of the study. Also, we have already surveyed this area for

another study (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998) regarding the unexplained powers of animals, and we are building up a database from this region

about people's experiences of unexplained phenomena.

A random sample of households was selected from the Pacific Bell Santa Cruz County 1999 telephone directory (area code 831), using an

electronic random number generator to determine the page and column number, as well as its position on the page (Brown & Sheldrake,

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Telepathy _ California Survey

1998).

D.B. and S.H. introduced themselves as follows: "Hello, my name is David Brown/Sherry Hall. I'm conducting a very brief telephone survey.

I was wondering if you had around two minutes to answer a few quick questions? I am not selling anything. The survey is about telephone

calls." Approximately 20% of the people reached by phone agreed to participate in the survey. This relatively low participation rate was

similar to that in a previous telephone survey in the same area (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998) and may reflect a reluctance of people there to

be bothered with such surveys. There was no mention of anything telepathic or psychic at this stage, so the respondents' agreement to

take part could not have been influenced by any bias for or against psychic phenomena.

When a cooperative subject was found, D.B. or S.H. then asked a series of questions and recorded the answers on a standard form as

follows:

1. Have you ever telephoned someone who said they were just thinking about telephoning you?

Yes/No/Not Sure

If yes: How often has this happened?

Often/Sometimes/Once

2. Have you ever heard the telephone ring or picked up the telephone and known who was on the other end without any possible cue,

before they have spoken?

Yes /No/Not Sure

If yes: How often has this happened?

Often/Sometimes/Once

3. Has this ever happened when you were using a mobile phone?

Yes/No/Not Sure

4. Have you ever had a thought about a person you haven't seen for a while who has then telephoned you the same day?

Yes/No/Not Sure

If yes: How often has this happened?

Often/Sometimes/Once

5. Approximately how many telephone calls do you receive a day?

Less than 5/ 5 to 10/ More than 10

6. Apart from experiences like this with telephone calls, have you had any other experiences that seem to involve telepathy?

Yes/No/Not Sure

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Telepathy _ California Survey

If yes: How often has this happened?

Often/Sometimes/Once

7. Do you have a pet?

Yes/No

The name, address and telephone number of each respondent were recorded, and their sex noted.

For the statistical comparisons, 2x2 contingency tables were used (Campbell, 1989).

Results

Two hundred people participated in this survey in Santa Cruz, 78 men and 122 women.

More than three quarters (78%) of the people surveyed said that they have had the experience of telephoning someone who said they were

just thinking about telephoning them (Table 1). This was the highest positive response in the survey. About a quarter of these people said

they had this experience often, but most said it happened "sometimes".

TABLE I

SURVEY RESULTS OF TELEPATHIC TELEPHONE CALLS IN SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

1. Have you ever telephoned someone who said they were just thinking about telephoning you?

Numbers (and percentages) of respondents

Yes

Not sure

All respondents

155 (78%)

31 (16%)

14 (7%)

Men

57 (73%)

15 (19%)

6 (8%)

Women

98 (80%)

16 (13%)

8 (7%)

If yes, how often has this happened?

Often

Sometimes

Once

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Telepathy _ California Survey

All respondents

35 (23%)

113 (73%)

7 (5%)

Men

8 (14%)

45 (79%)

4 (7%)

Women

27 (28%)

68 (70%)

3 (3%)

2. Have you ever heard the telephone ring and known who was on the other end without any possible cue, before they have spoken?

Numbers (and percentages) of respondents

Yes

Not Sure

All respondents

93 (47%)

80 (40%)

27 (14%)

Men

34 (44%)

35 (45%)

9 (12%)

Women

59 (48%)

45 (37%)

18 (15%)

If yes, how often has this happened?

Often

Sometimes

Once

All respondents

35 (37%)

56 (60%)

2 (2%)

Men

14 (40%)

18 (53%)

2 (2%)

Women

21 (36%)

38 (64%)

0 (0%)

Note There were 200 respondents in all, 78 men and 122 women

3. Has this ever happened when you were using a mobile phone?

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Telepathy _ California Survey

Numbers (and percentages) of respondents

Yes

Not sure

All respondents

15 (8%)

176 (88%)

9 (5%)

Men

7 (9%)

67 (86%)

4 (5%)

Women

8 (7%)

109 (89%)

5 (4%)

4. Have you ever thought about a person you haven't seen for a while, who has then telephoned the same day?

Numbers (and percentages) of respondents

Yes

Not sure

All responents

125 (63%)

43 (22%)

32 (16%)

Men

46 (59%)

21 (27%)

11 (14%)

Women

79 (65%)

22 (18%)

21 (17%)

If yes, how often has this happened?

Often

Sometimes

Once

All respondents

19 (15%)

97 (78%)

9 (7%)

Men

4 (9%)

40 (89%)

2 (4%)

Women

15 (19%)

57 (72%)

7 (9%)

5. Approximately how many telephone calls do you receive a day?

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Rupert Sheldrake - Anticipation Of Telephone Calls (eBook).pdf

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