Perceptions of Non-Local Communication: Incidences Associated with Media Consumption and Individual Differences‪.‬

This study examined the frequency with which individuals perceived that they had experienced incidents of a variety of forms of non-local communication (remote viewing, the stared-at sensation, pet-owner connections, precognition, dreams, and prayer). The data were gathered in a random telephone survey of 368 participants. The results indicated that the most frequently reported form of non-local communication was prayer response (90%). Other forms which individuals also reported having experienced were telephone source concurrence (79%), telephone source anticipation (67%), the presence-of-another person sensation (65%), anticipated event premonition (53%), dream premonition (51%), pet cognitive premonition (47%), travel premonition (45%), concurrent emotional experience (34%), post-death communication (29%), and dream concurrence (28%). The frequency of some responses was found to vary by age, gender, race, income, and media consumption. The potential influence of these perceptions on communication behavior is discussed. Topics such as extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis, and precognition (foretelling the future) have intrigued popular audiences for ages. Academic researchers have delved into such topics with mixed results. More recently, researchers in a variety of fields have tried to standardize such investigations by looking at them as "non-local communication," i.e., communication that occurs without the assistance of any apparent mechanical means. Jahn and Dunne (1987) described the process as more of a "resonance" than a true transmission or exchange of information (p. 42). Proponents argue that non-local communication is a phenomenon that disregards distance and time. It is sometimes labeled anomalous cognition, i.e., the acquisition by mental means alone of information that is blocked from the ordinary senses by shielding, distance, or time. Studies at the Stanford Research Institute (Puthoff, 2001) and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory (Jahn & Dunne, 1987) suggest that non-local communication occurs over great distances and with no time lapse for the transfer of information.