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Marijuana Intoxication, Psi, and Spiritual Experiences CHARLES T. TART ABSTRACT: General social beliefs that are acquired and operate in our ordinary state of consciousness usually deny the reality of psychic phenomena and thereby probably inhibit psychic functioning. Anecdotal reports, however, suggest that ostensibly paranormal phe- nomena often occur in association with altered states of consciousness. This study focuses on the altered state of marijuana intoxication. A questionnaire study of 150 experienced mari- juana users found that 76% believed in ESP, with frequent reports of experiences while intoxicated that were interpreted as psychic. Sixty-nine percent reported that they had expe- rienced telepathy while intoxicated, 32% reported precognition, and 13% reported psycho- kinesis. Fifty percent had experienced seeing auras around people and 44% reported out-of- body experiences. These findings suggest that marijuana, used under the proper psychological conditions, might facilitate the manifestation of psi. No studies are known in which ESP performance was tested under laboratory conditions while percipients were intoxicated with marijuana, but a 1975 study (Tart, 1975, 1976) found a positive correlation between labo- ratory ESP scoring and frequency of marijuana use outside the laboratory in a student pop- ulation. This study also found a negative correlation between ESP scoring and frequency of alcohol use in everyday life. A 1977 laboratory study (Tart, 1977) failed to confirm these findings. Differences between the studies are discussed, as is the importance of the ostensible paranormality of various experiences associated with marijuana intoxication on belief sys- tems, regardless of whether such experiences are actually paranormal. Ordinary life experiences that apparently involve manifestations of psi (i.e., telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or psychokinesis) can be of great psychological intensity and meaning, sometimes to the point of pro- ducing an experience of insight and spiritual blessedness at one extreme, or suffering, fear of going crazy, and maladaptive behavior at the other extreme. Psychological help may occasionally be required. In the past and, unfortunately, still too often in the present, such help was often irrelevant or worsened the client's state. This was due to professional ignorance about psi and the automatic interpretation of ostensible psi experiences as pathological delusions. The recent founding of the Spiritual Emergence Network (Grof & Grof, 1989), which is designed to educate mental health professionals and provide referrals for potential clients, is a useful effort to improve the situation. ' ' The Spiritual Emergence Network (formerly the Spiritual Emergency Network) can be contacted at their national headquarters at 5905 Soquel Dr., #650, Soquel, CA 95073. The Journal of the American Sociery for Psychical Research Vol. 87, April 1993
Transcript
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Marijuana Intoxication, Psi, and Spiritual Experiences

CHARLEST. TART

ABSTRACT: General social beliefs that are acquired and operate in our ordinary state of consciousness usually deny the reality of psychic phenomena and thereby probably inhibit psychic functioning. Anecdotal reports, however, suggest that ostensibly paranormal phe- nomena often occur in association with altered states of consciousness. This study focuses on the altered state of marijuana intoxication. A questionnaire study of 150 experienced mari- juana users found that 76% believed in ESP, with frequent reports of experiences while intoxicated that were interpreted as psychic. Sixty-nine percent reported that they had expe- rienced telepathy while intoxicated, 32% reported precognition, and 13% reported psycho- kinesis. Fifty percent had experienced seeing auras around people and 44% reported out-of- body experiences. These findings suggest that marijuana, used under the proper psychological conditions, might facilitate the manifestation of psi. No studies are known in which ESP performance was tested under laboratory conditions while percipients were intoxicated with marijuana, but a 1975 study (Tart, 1975, 1976) found a positive correlation between labo- ratory ESP scoring and frequency of marijuana use outside the laboratory in a student pop- ulation. This study also found a negative correlation between ESP scoring and frequency of alcohol use in everyday life. A 1977 laboratory study (Tart, 1977) failed to confirm these findings. Differences between the studies are discussed, as is the importance of the ostensible paranormality of various experiences associated with marijuana intoxication on belief sys- tems, regardless of whether such experiences are actually paranormal.

Ordinary life experiences that apparently involve manifestations of psi (i.e., telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or psychokinesis) can be of great psychological intensity and meaning, sometimes to the point of pro- ducing an experience of insight and spiritual blessedness at one extreme, or suffering, fear of going crazy, and maladaptive behavior at the other extreme. Psychological help may occasionally be required. In the past and, unfortunately, still too often in the present, such help was often irrelevant or worsened the client's state. This was due to professional ignorance about psi and the automatic interpretation of ostensible psi experiences as pathological delusions. The recent founding of the Spiritual Emergence Network (Grof & Grof, 1989), which is designed to educate mental health professionals and provide referrals for potential clients, is a useful effort to improve the situation. '

' The Spiritual Emergence Network (formerly the Spiritual Emergency Network) can be contacted at their national headquarters at 5905 Soquel Dr., #650, Soquel, CA 95073.

The Journal of the American Sociery for Psychical Research Vol. 87, April 1993

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The average manifestation of psi in laboratory experiments, by contrast, is usually unreliable and quantitatively weak. This is a major problem in experimental parapsychology: the signal-to-noise ratio in psi research is disappointingly low. Thus I and others have long been interested in the possible uses of discrete altered states of consciousness (d-ASCs); see Tart, 1983a for a full theoretical explication of the nature of d-ASCs to both facilitate and understand the operation of various psi abilities. I have written extensively on these issues (Tart, 1967, 1968,1970a, 1970b, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1983b), as have others (see, for example, Honorton, 1974, 1975; Honorton & Krippner, 1969; Kelly & Locke, 198 1; Krippner, 1975; LeShan, 1974; Masters, 1974; Mishlove, 1983; Parker, 1975; Schmeidler, 1982, 1988; Ullman & Krippner, 1970; Wookey, 1982). See Pekala (1991) for a review of recent empirical research on measuring the effects of altered states.

Hypnosis, meditation-induced d-ASCs, drug-induced d-ASCs, and con- trolled or guided emotional states all seem to be potential candidates for psi facilitation. Facilitation of the operation of psi abilities involves helping them manifest more reliably and at stronger intensities of functioning. Such facilitation would have the potential of leading to better understand- ing because more reliable psi would allow more fruitful process experi- mentation. Better understanding might also come about through state-specific understandings of psi functioning resulting from the development of state-specific sciences (Tart, 1972a). These would be testable under- standings dependent on the altered logics and perceptions of some d-ASCs, which are not fully comprehensible in our ordinary state.

This paper will discuss ostensibly psychic experiences associated with marijuana use, considering both their psychological impact and the possi- ble use of marijuana intoxication for facilitating psi performance under laboratory conditions.

Psychoactive drugs are convenient means of inducing d-ASCs. Al- though there is much intriguing speculation on the possibilities for using psychoactive drugs for inducing psi, numerous anecdotal reports, and many reviews of the general literature on psychedelics (Blewett, 1963; Cavanna & Ullman, 1968; Clark, 1967; Dobkin de Rios, 1984a; Dobkin de Rios, 1984b; Drury, 1984; Fair, 1975; Garrett, 1961; Kern, 1964; Kripp- ner, 1964; Krippner & Davidson, 1976; Long, 1976; Nicol & Nicol, 1961; Osmond, 1961; Smythies, 1960, 1983; Wasson, 1962; Wilson, 1949), there is only a sparse, older experimental literature on deliberately or experimentally using major psychedelics like LSD 25 to facilitate psi func-

408-464-8261. I urge all mental health professionals to become affiliated with the Network, as concerns about psychic and spiritual matters are becoming increasingly widespread.

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tioning (Cavanna & Servadio, 1964; Masters & Houston, 1966; Osis, 1961; Paul, 1966; Puharich, 1962; Van Asperen de Boer, Barkema, & Kappers, 1966; Vasiliev, 1965; Whittlesey, 1960). This experimental lit- erature has been reviewed by Krippner and Davidson (1974): with a recent note by Smythies (1987). The tremendous variability of reactions to the powerful psychedelics, however, combined with a lack of sophisticated knowledge on guiding psychedelic experiences at that early stage of re- search, produced results that were encouraging but not solid. A mild psy- chedelic such as marijuana, which can be used in a relatively controlled and reliable way by psychologically balanced people, offers more promise. Marijuana intoxication is also an excellent candidate for the development of a state-specific science. This latter aspect, however, falls outside the scope of the present paper.

Alcohol is the most popular (and probably the most generally dangerous) recreational drug in our culture, having been tried at least once by 86% of Americans (164 million people in the 1985 population of 191 million). Alcohol is reported to have been used within the last 30 days by 59% of the population (National lnstitute of Drug Abuse, 1986). Marijuana, in spite of continuing illegality, is the second most popular recreational drug, having been tried at least once by 32% of the population and used within the last 30 days by 10%. Thus, somewhere between 18 million and 62 million people have varying degrees of familiarity with the d-ASC that typically results from marijuana use.

Marijuana's effects are of interest to experimental parapsychology in- sofar as it has any psi-facilitating potential. In terms of its interest to the evolving field of clinical parapsychology, marijuana experiences may fos- ter illusions about psychic phenomena as a result of normal experiences being misinterpreted during the intoxicated state as psychic, or it may facilitate genuine psychic experiences, often of an intense variety. In either case, these experiences, mistaken or genuine, must be integrated into a person's life. Some ostensible psi experiences may also arouse normally unconscious fears about psi (Tart, 1982, 1986a; Tart & LaBore, 1986). Thus, techniques (Tart, 1984) for acknowledging and dealing with fears of psi may become relevant, as well as other clinical methods.

In this paper, the focus is on ostensible psi and spiritual experiences occumng with marijuana intoxication in populations of marijuana users, that is, people who use marijuana in everyday life without its use being, by their own report, significantly disruptive to their general happiness and adaptation. The additional clinical issues arising in marijuana abusers, whose use is part of a maladaptive psychological addiction, are beyond our present scope.

Marijuana is what Weil (1972) has called an active placebo. That is, there is a definite pharmacological effect due to the chemical nature of the

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drug, but at the same tlme, psychological and situational factors are so important in determining what the nature and content of the intoxicated state is that marijuana, at low to moderate doses, is like a placebo, with no particular effects at all other than those psychologically induced. The phar- macological effects create a range of possibilities; the psychological and situational factors determine which of these possibilities are likely to man- ifest. These nondrug factors are discussed at length elsewhere (Becker, 1957; Tart, 1971a; Weil, 1972).

When I became interested in the nature of the d-ASC produced by marijuana intoxication (popularly referred to as being stoned), I first re- viewed the laboratory studies of marijuana. It became clear that such studies involved a narrow and specialized selection of psychological and situational factors, so that only a fraction of the range of possible altered mental functioning with marijuana occurred in most laboratory settings. Further, this selection seemed atypical of what people ordinarily experi- enced when using marijuana in settings of their choice. Further, the lab- oratory studies had certainly not attempted to foster a state conducive to psi functioning.

To examine the fuller and more typical range of marijuana effects, I conducted informal interviews with a number of highly educated users in the late 1960s. This led to the development of a 220-item formal ques- tionnaire. It was distributed informally by giving batches to students and associates and asking that they pass them on until they ended up in the hands of experienced users, who could then mail them back anonymously. "Experienced" was defined on the questionnaire as having used marijuana at least a dozen times.

Questions were of the general form, During the state produced from using marijuana I experience X , more so than if1 had not used marijuana. Users were asked to rate the frequency of each described effect during their previous six months of use in categories of Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Very Often, and Usually. They were also asked to rate the minimal level of intoxication necessary to experience each phenomenon in categories of Just, Fairly, Strongly, Very Strongly, and Maximum. These categories were defined more clearly in the instructions. A subsequent confirmation study (Tart & Kvetensky, 1973) has shown this experiential rating of thresholds for effects to be reliable.

Some illustrative questions are:

I can see new colors or more subtle shades of color than when I'm straight. When listening to stereo music or live music, the spatial separation between the various instruments sounds greater, as if they were physically further apart. I get so lost in fantasy or similar trips in my head that I completely forget where I am, and it takes a while to reorient after I come back and open my eyes.

There were 153 questionnaires returned, which represent approximately

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37,000 episodes of marijuana intoxication under ordinary life, or nonlab- oratory conditions. The respondents were mainly Californians (67%), with 87% under 30 years of age. Sixty-seven percent were students, 71% were unmarried, and there were twice as many male as female respondents. Their educational level was very high, with 21% having some graduate work or advanced degrees and only 7% having no college training. Many were actively interested in self-improvement, with 36% reporting that they practiced some sort of meditative or other spiritual training method. Fre- quency of marijuana use ranged from "almost every day" for 19% of the respondents to "less than once a week" for 39%. Most (72%) had tried more powerful psychedelic drugs such as LSD at least once, but only 7% had tried hard narcotics or drugs such as amphetamines: these drugs were considered too dangerous to be worthwhile by most of the educated drug culture at that time.

Fourteen of the questionnaire items comprised a validity scale that con- tained invented experiences that had not been reported by the interviewees and that I considered unlikely to occur, such as, The force of gravity seems to alternate between pushing me up and pushing me down. Three ques- tionnaires with more than six positive responses on the validity scale were discarded because they probably were filled out carelessly. This resulted in 150 questionnaires remaining for analysis.

This sample is not necessarily representative of the general population, of course, and thus generalization of the results must be cautious. Further, there have been major changes in the drug culture since these data were collected in 1970 that also qualify the results. Drug users in 1970 tended to be highly intelligent and educated rebels and visionaries, interested in self-knowledge and improving themselves and the world. Having impor- tant insights into oneself and others was one of the most characteristic effects of the marijuana d-ASC in this group, for example. Using mari- juana was not a mass fad yet.

Once it became a fad, many people who were not that interested in psychology or self-improvement per se started using marijuana because it was the thing to do. Their motivation was probably quite different. Given the active placebo nature of marijuana discussed above, differing motiva- tions and backgrounds would probably lead to significantly different qual- ities of the d-ASC produced by marijuana. For example, my informants in the initial interviews indicated that they did not use alcohol at the same time that they used marijuana because it dulled the d-ASC produced by marijuana.' Today studies show that simultaneous marijuana and alcohol use is common, suggesting many people are seeking escape rather than insights. Hochhauser (1977), for example, surveyed 365 undergraduates and found that of the 42% who admitted to polydmg use, 84% used

With the exception of using small amounts of wine for its enhanced taste, not for its intoxicating effects.

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marijuana and alcohol in combination. I shall return to the issue of the changing nature of the marijuana-using population later.

Nevertheless, I believe my 1970 respondents are fairly typical of the kind of person who may volunteer for psychological and parapsychological testing, namely, college students and college-educated people with a strong curiosity about the mind who are seeking various kinds of self- improvement. Such people also represent a subclass of clients often seen by counselors and psychotherapists. Thus, the findings of the 1970 study, applied thoughtfully in individual cases, can still be useful today.

The general results of the study, as well as details of the analytical procedure, have been presented briefly (Tart, 1970b) and in detail (Tart, 197 1 a) elsewhere. They constitute a phenomenological description of the general nature of the d-ASC resulting from marijuana intoxication as it was widely practiced by educated people in our culture in the late 1960s. I will highlight the effects relevant to experimental and clinical parapsychology in this article. These have been partially presented in a more popular form elsewhere (Tart, 197 1 b).

Belief in Extrasensory Perception

Forty-six percent of the respondents indicated strong agreement with the statement, I believe in the existence of extrasensory perception (ESP), i .e . , that people can sometimes acquire knowledge about things happening at a distance in space or time, or about other people's thoughts, when there is no possibility of this knowledge having been acquired through the known senses (sight, hearing, etc.). Another 30% believed somewhat, and only 3% disbelieved strongly.3

This total of 76% who believe in ESP is quite high. In 1973, when there was considerably more overt cultural acceptance of ESP than in 1970, a representative poll of the American population by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago found that 58% of people believed they had personally experienced ESP (Greeley, 1975). This is not the same question as belief in ESP, of course, but it is the closest available in survey data. The belief that one has personally experienced some kind of ESP had risen to 67% in a 1987 poll ("Polls Indicate," 1987).

Telepathy

To the sentence, Ifeel so aware of what people are thinking that it must be telepathy, mind reading, rather than just being more sensitive to the subtle cues in their behavior, 30% responded that they had never experi-

'This question had its own response scale, not the one listed earlier. Note also that percentages given will not always add up to 100%due to occasional skipping of questions by respondents and rounding errors.

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enced this and 22% rarely, but 31% responded Sometimes, 12% Very Often, and 4% Usually. Higher levels of intoxication were usually indi- cated as the threshold for this effect, and heavy users indicated they ex- perienced it more frequently than moderate or light users.4 Marijuana users who had also used psychedelic drugs did not have to be as intoxicated to believe they had experienced telepathy while intoxicated with marijuana.

Precognition

Experiencing apparent precognition was a much rarer phenomenon than telepathy. To the sentence I can foretell the future by some kind of pre- cognition, more than just predicting logically from present events, 64% responded Never, 19% Rarely, 11% Sometimes, and only 1% Very Often and 1% Usually. Because most users had never experienced this, there were few ratings of minimal level of intoxication, but those who did rate the level considered precognition a high-level effect. Heavier users re- ported precognition more frequently than lighter users.

The comparative rarity of ostensible precognition experiences compared with ostensible telepathic ones is interesting in light of a later finding that the frequency and information transmission rate of precognition in labo- ratory studies is much lower than for present-time telepathy (Tart, 1983b). I do not believe that such a difference is reflected in spontaneous psi cases.

Psychokinesis

Ostensible psychokinesis (PK) was reported even more rarely than os- tensible precognition. In response to I can perform magical operations that will affect objects or people while intoxicated with marijuana, 83% indi- cated they had never experienced this, 6% Rarely, 6% Sometimes, 1% Very Often, and no one Usually. The few who rated threshold level indi- cated PK did not occur until very high levels of intoxication were reached. Users were also asked to describe experiences in this category. Responses suggested that the usual parapsychological concept of PK was not com- municated well, so responses to this question should be taken guardedly. Nevertheless, it is interesting that both ostensible precognition and PK are reported much less frequently than ostensible telepathy by marijuana users; this parallels a finding that precognition and PK appear at a significantly lower rate of manifestation than present time ESP (telepathy or clairvoy- ance) in laboratory studies (Tart, 1983~).

Auras

The aura is a field of colored light sometimes experienced as outlining a person, and it is often reported to change in response to a person's health

All the differences I will report from this study were statistically significant at the .05 level or less, two-tailed.

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or emotional state. Although it is undoubtedly an experiential reality for some people, most parapsychologists would put it in the "maybe but almost no evidence to that effect" category as to whether it has any parapsychological reality. The methodology for research to begin to es- tablish whether there are any parapsychological aspects of the aura has been presented elsewhere (Tart, 1972b), but almost no research has been done.

Some kind of aura around people is occasionally experienced by mari- juana users when intoxicated with marijuana. I see fringes of colored light around people (not objects), what people have called the "aura" was reported Never by 50%, Rarely by 23%, Sometimes by 19%, Very Often by 5%, and Usually by 1 %. A closely related phenomenon, I see fringes of colored light around objects (not people), what people have called the "aura," is reported with almost identical frequency (46%, 21%, 20%, 8%, 1%). The similarity in frequency suggests we are dealing primarily, if not exclusively, with a change in the way the nervous system processes visual information. Nevertheless, experiencers may interpret this aura as a psychic phenomenon, and perhaps it is at times. Both of these effects have a high level of intoxication threshold.

Out-of-Body Experiences

Have you ever had the experience of being "located" outside your phys- ical body, i.e., of you being at a different location in space than the one you knew your body was at? Dreams aren't included here, or situations where you just lost consciousness of your body. This is where you consciously feel located at a different place and know at the time that you are conscious but at a different location. Has this happened to you? At all? While stoned? Happened before started smoking grass? Happened after started smoking grass?

Although 53% indicated that they had not had an out-of-body experience (OBE), 23% reported they had experienced one OBE, and 21% reported that they had experienced multiple OBEs. Three percent did not answer this question. Fewer males reported OBEs than females, but males were more likely to report multiple OBEs. Respondents more involved in per- sonal growth tended to report more OBEs. Some of the OBEs were while intoxicated with marijuana, others not, but more than twice as many users indicated their OBEs had occurred after they had started using marijuana as those who indicated their OBEs had preceded use. A related marijuana effect is I have lost all consciousness of my body and the external world and just found myself floating in limitless space (not necessarily physical space). Twenty-nine percent report this Rarely, 30% Sometimes, 10% Very Often, and 4% Usually.

OBEs are probably more common in our culture than suspected, but only a few small-scale surveys have been conducted. In the most compre- hensive, a mail survey of students at the University of Virginia and towns-

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people in Charlottesville, where the university is located, Palmer (1979) found that 25% of the students and 14% of the townspeople believed they had experienced at least one OBE. Thus, the marijuana-using respondents in this survey show a very high incidence of ostensible OBEs. Marijuana use, then, may either induce OBEs and/or make a person more likely to remember or report them.

Reactions to having an OBE range from worrying that one is crazy (especially if there is no cultural support for the experience) to considering it of profound religious significance (see Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984). The recent literature on near-death experiences also illustrates this latter point clearly (see, e.g., Moody, 1975, 1977; Ring, 1980, 1984; Sabom, 1982).

An experience reported b Y one of the respondents illustrates some of the classical features of OBEs.

I had quite an interesting experience while camping. I got stoned on grass, and as I was about to go to sleep, I came completely awake and aware of my surroundings. It was pitch black in the tent, yet I could see as if it were daylight. I felt as if my body were covered with eyes and I could see in all directions. I slowly floated up through the top of the tent, looking at the whole area. I got farther away, moving towards space. I got very realistic views of the earth. I kept moving up until I could see half of the earth, then the earth and the moon, continuing until I stood at the edge of space, inspecting the whole universe.

I was all of a sudden struck by man's insignificance. Then I proceeded to move until I could see hundreds of universes glinting like stars. None of these universes was any larger than the head of a pin. It was incredibly beautiful. I began laughing almost hysterically because now our own uni- verse, immense as it seems to us, was no bigger than the head of a pin and one among millions besides.

I described the whole experience as it happened to several other people; and I believe, from the reaction I got, I thoroughly scared the hell out of them.

There were a number of important spiritual experiences surveyed in the questionnaire, considered parapsychological in inexact popular usage of the term, that should be mentioned, although they are not strictly parapsy- chological in the modem, scientific use of the term. By "spiritual" I mean experiences that seem to take the experiencers beyond the boundaries of their ordinary selves and physical limitations and connect them with a Greater ~ e a l i t ~ of intelligence, meaning, and purpose.

Contact With the Divine

Although 39% had never experienced contact with the divine while intoxicated with marijuana, most of my 1970 respondents answered pos-

The respondent reported this under the spiritual experiences section of the questionnaire rather than the ESP portion.

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itively to I feel in touch with a Higher Power or a Divine Being to some extent when intoxicated with marijuana; I feel more in contact with the "spiritual" side of things. This was rated Usual for lo%, Very Often for 12%:Sometimes for 24%,and Rarely for 13%.This effect tends to occur at higher levels of intoxication.

Spiritual Experiences

One third of the respondents replied Yes to the sentence, I have spiritual experiences, discrete experiences which have had a powerful, long-term religious effect on me, while stoned. Those responding positively were asked to briefly describe such experiences. The primary components re- ported were a sense of unity with the cosmos, stimulation of a long-term interest in spiritual matters, contact with divine beings, long-term and positive changes in lifestyle, and a sense of deep peace and joy. These qualities are typical of nondrug-induced mystical experiences (Pahnke, 1966; Pahnke & Richards, 1969).

Marijuana and Psi in the Laboratory

Whenever people are polled about their ostensible psychic experiences, problems of definition and reporting arise. Does the respondent have the same criteria for ruling out ordinary explanations, thus qualifying an event as ostensibly psychic, as the researcher does? Is the respondent accurate in reporting?

These problems are particularly acute when ostensible psychic events occurring during periods of marijuana intoxication are asked about, as there are major changes in styles of perception, emotion, and evaluation (Tart, 1970b, 1971a) as well as possible problems in the way an event was remembered for later reporting and evaluation. An event that might appear unimportant, coincidental, or explicable by ordinary means to a nonintox- icated person might appear important and mysterious to the intoxicated person. Thus the experience might be falsely evaluated as psychic. Con- trariwise, an event that is actually psychic, but might be misperceived as ordinary by a nonintoxicated person, might be correctly perceived as psy- chic by an intoxicated person.

These confusions will often be unimportant in dealing clinically with a person who is emotionally affected by what he or she considers psychic, regardless of the actual case. It is of theoretical interest to the clinician, however, as well as of great practical importance to the laboratory worker wondering if marijuana intoxication might boost psi performance, to de- termine if the apparent boost of psi by marijuana is real. Ideally, straight- forward laboratory experimentation with percipients intoxicated at times and not intoxicated at other times would provide a clear answer. Given the illegality of marijuana, the poor funding in parapsychology, and the bu- reaucratic and social complexities of doing research with marijuana, how-

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ever, I do not anticipate any laboratory research on this in the immediately foreseeable future. I do have some less direct research material that bears on these questions, however.

RESULTSFROM STUDYTHE 1975 CONFIRMATION

In the fall of 1975, John Palmer, Dana Redington, my experimental psychology class students, and I carried out a large study on the effects of immediate feedback on ESP performance in the laboratory, based on a theory that immediate feedback would eliminate the typical declines found in laboratory ESP work and provide an opportunity for some percipients to learn improved ESP performance (Tart, 1966). An initial study had sup- ported these predictions (Tart, 1975, 1976).

The overall results of the entire study have been presented elsewhere (Tart, Palmer & Redington, 1979). Briefly, 1,835 UC Davis students were given two paper and pencil tests of general ESP (GESP) ability in their classes. Results of this classroom procedure are described fully elsewhere (Palmer, Tart, & Redington, 1976). The more successful student percip- ients were invited to participate in six individually supervised laboratory tests of GESP ability, which constituted the Confirmation Study. Students who continued to show strong signs of positive GESP performance in the Confirmation Study were invited to work in a more extensive Training Study.

In the Confirmation Study, a percipient did four tests on one kind of testing machine and two on another. The Aquarius 4-choice machine task (Targ & Hurt, 1975) called for pushing one of four response buttons to try to identify a target number selected by the machine's electronic random number generator. The selected target number was displayed to an exper- imenter in a distant room who tried to "send" it to the student percipient. The 10-Choice training machine (TCT) was similar, but with 10 target choices.

In the 1975 Confirmation Study, 72 students completed at least one run on the Aquarius 4-choice machine. Overall, they showed significant ESP hitting (1,554 hits for 5,951 trials when 1,487.75 hits were expected by chance, p < .05, one-tailed). Although statistically significant, the results represented a relatively low level of psi functioning, with a psi coefficient (Timm, 1973) of .Ol; that is, psi was only being manifested on about one percent of the trials, after chance hitting is factored out. This low level of functioning is, unfortunately, typical in parapsychological studies.

The 73 students who completed at least one run on the TCT made 467 hits in 4,520 trials, 15 more hits than expected by chance, which was not significant. Low or zero amounts of overall ESP in a group such as this decrease the sensitivity of correlational tests to pick up real relationships, but they do not destroy it completely. A group average not significantly different from chance may conceal genuine ESP that is canceled out at the group level by very high and very low scoring percipients.

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As far as we knew, student percipients were not intoxicated with mar- ijuana or any other drug during the laboratory testing. To test whether prior use of marijuana, major psychedelic drugs, andlor alcohol use might be related to GESP scoring in spite of the low-level results, we distributed a questionnaire about drug use to participants in the Confirmation Study. Through an elaborate coding system, we were able to correlate their re- sponses with their confirmation Study GESP scores while protecting their anonymity. Fifty-five student percipients returned completed question- naires.

The drug-use questionnaires asked 14 questions. Question 1 concerned personal experience with marijuana on a 4-choice scale ranging from never to more than a dozen times. Question 2 asked: "Do you regularly practice any sort of meditation or other nondrug discipline for spiritual or personal growth?" Question 3 inquired about the length of time marijuana or hash- ish had been used. Questions 4 and 5 asked for ratings of marijuana use in all the time the respondent had used it and in the last 6 months, in the same question form as that used in the original 1970 marijuana study. Question 6 asked what percentage of the time a respondent would choose alcohol over marijuana to alter hislher state of consciousness if both were freely available. Question 7 asked how many times a more powerful psychedelic such as LSD, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), or diethyltryptamine (DET) had been used. Question 8 asked how long alcohol had been used to get tipsy or drunk (rather than just for taste with meals), and Questions 9 and 10 rated frequency of use over total time and the last 6 months for alcohol, in the same form as for marijuana. Questions 11, 12, 13 and 14 reproduced the telepathy, precognition, magic, and out-of-body experience questions from the original study.

Although these student respondents had been selected for potential GESP ability, not on the basis of their drug use, they had an extensive history of drug use. Although 40% had never tried marijuana and 82% had never used one of the more powerful psychedelic drugs, 44% had used marijuana at least a dozen times, and 78% had used alcohol to get tipsy or drunk at least once. The marijuana users averaged 4 years of use over a range of one month to 10 years; the alcohol users averaged 3 1 years of use over a range of one month to 13 years.

The results of this study were most intriguing and most frustrating. The intriguing result is that Palmer, Redington, and I all clearly recall (personal communications with each, October, 1986) that we found that students who used marijuana moderately to heavily, but seldom used alcohol, scored significantly above chance in the Confirmation Study. Further, students who were heavy alcohol users scored significantly below chance. We decided not to write this result up at the time as we thought it best to wait for confirmatory results in future studies we hoped to ca&y out. The frustrating aspect of this result was that lack of funds for further research broke up our research team before this planned joint research, and in the chaos of resulting moves neither I nor my colleagues can find copies of the

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analyses our memory is based on, nor can we locate enough of the original data to present detailed results. Thus, these findings about marijuana and alcohol use and GESP performance must fall in a category of "better than an anecdote but less than a proper experiment." I would normally not publish a finding based on memory, but the virtually total lack of data on this important question justifies recording our joint recollection of what occurred.

RESULTSFROM 1977 CONFIRMATIONTHE STUDY

Working with just my UC Davis students, I was able to carry out a similar study 2 years later in the fall of 1977. Following a large-scale Selection Study with new students, an identical drug-use questionnaire was returned by 60 students in a Confirmation Study design that was similar to the previous one except that all the testing for the drug questionnaire part of the study was collected on a newer version of the TCT, the ADEPT (Advanced Decimal Extrasensory Perception Trainer). Six tests of 20 trials each were done with each student percipient.

As with the TCT results of the previous study, there was no evidence of ESP for the overall group, with 747 hits occumng in 7,200 trials when 720 were expected by chance. Although the sensitivity of correlational tests is decreased because of the overall chance results, analyses were carried out because these are the only data that I know of bearing on the question of marijuana use and laboratory psi performance.

The 1977 percipients, like the 1975 ones, had been selected for potential GESP ability, not drug use, yet again showed extensive drug experience. Seventy-seven percent of them had used marijuana from 1 month to 12 years, about 4.5 years on the average. This was about 7 months longer on the average than they had used alcohol for altering their state of conscious- ness. sixty percent had tried one of the more powerful psychedelics at least once, compared to 18% in the 1975 sample.

Our remembered positive correlation in the 1975 Confirmation Study between GESP scoring and marijuana use and the negative correlation between GESP scoring and alcohol use received no confirmation in this 1977 sample. Spearman rank order correlations between total marijuana use and GESP were close to zero, although there was a small negative, but insignificant, correlation between frequency of marijuana use over the last 6 months and GESP scoring (r = - .25, t[36] = 1.52, p < .20, two-tailed). The correlation between GESP performance and previous experi- ence with major psychedelic drugs was insignificant (r = .14). Correla-tions with alcohol use all ran around an insignificant - . l o .

I did find three significant correlations with GESP functioning, how- ever. The more frequently a percipient self-reported experiencing ostensi- ble telepathy, precognition, or magical effects while intoxicated with mar- ijuana, the lower their GESP score in the laboratory. The Spearman rank order correlation coefficients were - .47, - .45, and - .33,-respectively,

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the first two significant at p < .01, two-tailed and the third significant at p < .05, two-tailed. As the probability of finding two correlations signif- icant at the .O1 level in 19 tests is less than .02, these results are unlikely to be an artifact of multiple testing.6

Comparing the Studies

The recalled results of the 1975 sample, a positive correlation between marijuana use and GESP, and a negative one between alcohol use and GESP received no support from the 1977 sample. Indeed, the results of the 1977 sample could be interpreted to mean that ostensible psychic experi- ences while intoxicated with marijuana, because they are negatively related to actual laboratory GESP performance, may well be illusory much of the time. This may be the case, but I will suggest some additional consider- ations to flesh out the picture.

Because of the illegality of marijuana, the attitude of rebellion connected with using it, and the rapidly changing fashionability of marijuana use in the time periods under consideration, there may be significantly different populations of users in the 1970, 1975, and 1977 samples. In 1968, for example, an annual survey of college freshmen sponsored by the American Council on Education showed that fewer than one in five students sup- ported legalization of marijuana, but by 1977 a majority (53%) favored it (Astin, Green, & Korn, 1987). That year was a high point of support, as it had fallen back to 22% in 1985. A similar peaking of approval of marijuana in high school students in 1975 to 1978, followed by a decline, was reported by Johnston, O'Malley, and Bachman (1986). An occasional survey by Sommer (1988) of attitudes toward marijuana in upper division psychology students in his classes at UC Davis found similar changes.

My data allow some comparison of the 1970, 1975, and 1977 samples. The 1977 sample of marijuana users (who were not selected for being marijuana users but for promise of GESP ability) differed from the original users in the 1970 study in their reported ostensible psychic experiences. The 1977 respondents reported ostensible telepathic experiences while in- toxicated with marijuana significantly more frequently (p < .05, two- tailed, by chi-square test) than the original sample, viz. 17% Never, 43% Rarely, 17% Sometimes, 20% Very Often, and 3% Usually. The 1977 respondents also reported significantly lower minimal intoxication thresh- olds than the 1970 respondents (p < .02, two-tailed, by chi-square test) for experiencing ostensible telepathy (10% Just, 45% Fairly, 27% Strongly, and 17% Very Strongly).

The growth practice item, being binary, was not suitable for testing with the Spearman test. It was tested by a Mann-Whitney U test and showed no significant difference in GESP scores of those who did or did not report practicing meditation or some other nondrug growth practice.

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The 1975 sample (for whom we recall a significant positive correlation of GESP scores and marijuana use and a significant negative one with alcohol use) did not differ from the original 1970 sample in terms of frequency of ostensible telepathic experiences while intoxicated with mar- ijuana, but did indicate a significantly lower minimal intoxication thresh- old for experiencing this ( p < .03, two-tailed, by chi-square test). The 1975 and 1977 samples did not differ significantly from each other on these two measures, but it should be noted that the small sample sizes involved in comparing these two reduce the sensitivity of the tests.

The 1977 respondents indicate a higher frequency of ostensible precog- nition and of magical operations while intoxicated with marijuana, with lower minimal thresholds for these phenomena, compared to the original 1970 sample, but these trends do not reach statistical significance. Com- parisons between the 1975 and 1977 samples are not practical here due to low numbers.

Another alternative interpretation of the apparent negative correlation between laboratory psi performance and frequency of ostensible psi expe- riences while intoxicated with marijuana is one suggested by Osis (per- sonal communication, August 1990). People who believe they have strong psychic ability may be more defensive about being tested in the laboratory, and their consequent anxiety may inhibit psi performance. Along the same lines, people who have experienced a variety of psi experiences may find the narrowness of laboratory tasks an insult to their abilities and so not perform (Swann, 1987). Further, the ostensible psi experiences self- reported with marijuana intoxication may be genuine but state-specific (Rossi, 1987; Tart, 1972a). The particular constellations of abilities helpful to psi functioning operating in the d-ASC of marijuana intoxication may not transfer well to the ordinary state of consciousness. Finally, it must be noted that the 1975 sample actually showed statistically significant (albeit small) ESP functioning in the laboratory, whereas the 1977 sample did not. The 1977 sample may have been more deluded about the actual paranor- mality of their ostensible psi experiences than the 1975 sample. These alternative interpretations are subject to empirical test in principle, al- though the practical difficulties of obtaining the necessary legal approvals and support for laboratory research with marijuana are unlikely to be overcome at this time.

The empirical data reported here are, of course, quite preliminary, much of the data being abstracted from a larger, general study of marijuana intoxication per se. The findings should be taken only as suggestive until more extensive empirical studies validate or disprove them. Given the unlikelihood of such studies with our current political and social climate, I have presented the material, in spite of its preliminary nature, for its inherent interest. To my knowledge, it is all we have.

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In looking at the development of ordinary, "normal" consciousness from a transpersonal perspective (Pearce, 1973, 1974; Tart, 1983a, 1986b), a main function of ordinary consensus consciousness is to selec- tively shape perception, thinking, feeling, and behavior to a narrow, in- tegrated range that embodies the myths, hopes, fears, wisdom, and sur- vival strategies of the particular culture a person is born in. This special- ization has survival value in many ways, but it can ultimately be detrimental to individuals and societies because the automatization of mental processes involved and emotional attachment to and defense of these automated patterns of perception and reaction inhibit the capacity to deal with a changing world in a flexible, adaptive manner. In the more educated portion of our Western culture, this shaping and conditioning frequently includes a rejection of classical religious beliefs and experiences and a rejection of psi phenomena.

Altered states appeal to people for many reasons, but the one of most importance to us here is that they provide glimpses or moments of escape from the constrictive forces of consensus consciousness, pointing out pos- sibilities of growth, maturation, adventure, and pleasure for individuals and society. Contact with a Supreme Being or similar experiences can take a person from a confused, depressed state of ordinary existence and make his or her world full of hope and meaning, for example. An OBE, as a second example, especially if it is a component of a near-death experience, usually convinces the experiencer that he or she need not fear death, that death is not an end but an opening into a new world of joyful possibilities.

But our common cultural conditioning is to dismiss such experiences as imaginary at best, as avoidance of the hard facts of material reality, and, at worst, as signs of craziness. This is why ostensible psi experiences, whether genuine or not, are psychologically important. Something impos-sible happens, "impossible" given the belief structure of a purely material world that excludes psi. The conceptually impossible event can be inter- preted to mean that the restrictions of possibilities in the consensus con- sciousness belief structure may be a common belief, but not an absolute limit. We may indeed have possibilities more in line with a spiritual view of humankind than with a strictly materialistic view. Thus ostensible psi experiences are important to many in contemporary culture because they provide validation for a more spiritual view.

I have qualified psi experiences with the word ostensible in the above paragraph to focus on the effects of such experiences on psychological attitudes and beliefs per se. Some ostensible psi experiences are, of course, genuine psi experiences, meeting scientific criteria of being inexplicable by any reasonable extension of normal scientific, materialistic theories. The occurrence of highly evidential psi events of that sort makes the above argument more powerful.

Living in difficult, dis-spirited times, then, many people will deliber- ately seek spiritual and psychic experiences. Marijuana use will continue to be an important vehicle in this search, even though many other methods,

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drug and nondmg, will be employed. Further understanding of the effects of marijuana on consciousness will be of value in promoting the manifes- tation of psi in the laboratory, in aiding clients to understand and integrate ordinary life and marijuana-induced ostensible psi and spiritual experi- ences, and in understanding the nature of the human mind.

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Department of Psychology University of California Davis, California 95616

Institute of Noetic Sciences Sausalito, California 94965


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