Front. Hum. Neurosci., 25 March 2014 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00146
Predicting the unpredictable: critical analysis and practical implications of predictive anticipatory activity
Julia A. Mossbridge1*, Patrizio Tressoldi2, Jessica Utts3, John A. Ives4, Dean Radin5 and Wayne B. Jonas4
1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
2Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Universita di Padova, Padova, Italy
3Department of Statistics, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
4Samueli Institute, Alexandria, VA, USA
5Consciousness Research Laboratory, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, CA, USA
A recent meta-analysis of experiments from seven independent laboratories (n = 26) indicates that the human body can apparently detect randomly delivered stimuli occurring 1–10 s in the future (Mossbridge et al., 2012). The key observation in these studies is that human physiology appears to be able to distinguish between unpredictable dichotomous future stimuli, such as emotional vs. neutral images or sound vs. silence. This phenomenon has been called presentiment (as in “feeling the future”). In this paper we call it predictive anticipatory activity (PAA). The phenomenon is “predictive” because it can distinguish between upcoming stimuli; it is “anticipatory” because the physiological changes occur before a future event; and it is an “activity” because it involves changes in the cardiopulmonary, skin, and/or nervous systems. PAA is an unconscious phenomenon that seems to be a time-reversed reflection of the usual physiological response to a stimulus. It appears to resemble precognition (consciously knowing something is going to happen before it does), but PAA specifically refers tounconscious physiological reactions as opposed to conscious premonitions. Though it is possible that PAA underlies the conscious experience of precognition, experiments testing this idea have not produced clear results. The first part of this paper reviews the evidence for PAA and examines the two most difficult challenges for obtaining valid evidence for it: expectation bias and multiple analyses. The second part speculates on possible mechanisms and the theoretical implications of PAA for understanding physiology and consciousness. The third part examines potential practical applications
Yes if you mean from a user perspective. For all the latest on intuitive interaction research, see this speciall issue released last month: http://iwc.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/3.toc
Wrote paper for DoD on the important use of intuition in military decision-making as a driver for data base searches to verify and adjust "picture" of the battle-space (contact me for copy at [email protected]).
Also posted paper on Descartes' mind-brain dualism theory in which Near Death Experience (NDE) reports strongly support his theory and reconceptualized space-time wherein time is a real 4th dimension( http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/Articles/frozen_time.htm ). Intuition is thus shown to have a potential source in mind, in contrast to brain functioning.