Who's Calling at this Hour? Local Sidereal Time and Telephone Telepathy

Lobach, Eva, Bierman, Dick J • 2004 Modern Era • telepathy

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Plain English Summary

Can people really sense who's calling before picking up the phone? Six women in Amsterdam took 214 guesses at which of four possible callers was ringing, and they got it right 29.4% of the time -- above the 25% you'd expect from pure luck. Even more intriguing, the researchers tested whether a specific time of day measured by the stars (called "local sidereal time") boosted this telepathy effect, since earlier research suggested a sweet spot around 13:30 on that cosmic clock. Hit rates did climb during peak star-time (34.6% vs 25.2%), though the difference fell just short of statistical significance. One charming finding: the stronger the emotional bond between caller and guesser, the better the guessing. The catch? With only six participants and the star-time peak landing conveniently in the morning while non-peak fell in the evening, you genuinely cannot tell whether it's the stars or just the time of day doing the work.

Actual Paper Abstract

Can we guess who is calling us on the phone before picking up, and does local sidereal time (LST) affect how often we guess right? Reviews of anomalous cognition studies have shown that effect sizes are highest around 13.30 LST (Spottiswoode, 1997). A post-hoc analysis of telephone telepathy data of Sheldrake (2003) also showed a peak at that time. LST (peak or non-peak) was an independent variable in our prospective telephone telepathy study. Six women who indicated they often experienced telephone telepathy were selected to participate. Each participant chose four close friends or relatives to act as callers. All completed a total of 36 trials; six sessions of six trials each, three sessions at peak time (between 8.00 and 9.00 local time) and three at non-peak time (between 17.30 and 18.30 local time). One of the experimenters was at the participant's home during the sessions. The experimenter made sure no irregular communication was going on and logged times of the calls and responses of the participant. At a different location another experimenter used a dice to select a caller about five minutes before the scheduled trial. Then he or she contacted the caller who was asked to call the participant in five minutes and to concentrate his or her thoughts on the participant for the last two minutes before the call was made. When the phone rang at the participant's home, the participant guessed who she thought was calling before picking up. Analyses show a significant over-all scoring rate of 29.4% (p = .05). Almost all of this effect originates from the sessions at peak time with a scoring rate of 34.6%. Exploratory analyses show that a stronger emotional bond between particpant and caller is associated with a higher hitrate. It is concluded that results provide tentative support for the hypothesis that Local Sidereal Time is related to a phenomenon like telephone telepathy. In addition, the results are in support of the existence of telephone telepathy. Other explanations of the anomalous effect cannot be ruled out, such as precognition, retro psychokinesis by the experimenter or the participant so the dice throw would coincide with the particular caller the participant would guess, or clairvoyance of the dice throws. Future studies should aim at teasing apart the supposed effects of LST and local time on 'telephone telepathy.'

Research Notes

Only prospective test of Spottiswoode's LST peak hypothesis within the telephone telepathy paradigm. Small N=6 and the winter Amsterdam setting (peak LST = morning, non-peak = evening) prevent separating LST from local time. Effect size (Cohen's h ≈ 0.10) matches ganzfeld literature but the 214-trial dataset is underpowered. Included in Sheldrake's 2025 telecommunication telepathy meta-analysis.

Prospective replication of Sheldrake & Smart (2003) telephone telepathy incorporating local sidereal time (LST) as an independent variable, following Spottiswoode's (1997) finding that anomalous cognition effect sizes peak around 13:30 LST. Six women completed 214 usable trials across 6 sessions (3 at peak LST, 3 at non-peak). Caller selection was randomized by dice at a separate location; an in-home experimenter monitored for signal leakage. Overall hit rate was 29.4% (p=0.05, one-tailed) above 25% chance; regular sessions: 32.7% (p < 0.005). Peak-LST sessions yielded 34.6% vs. 25.2% non-peak (p=0.09). Emotional bond correlated with hit rate (r=0.41, p < 0.05). Results tentatively support both telephone telepathy and the LST hypothesis, but LST was confounded with local time of day.

APA

Lobach, Eva, Bierman, Dick J (2004). Who's Calling at this Hour? Local Sidereal Time and Telephone Telepathy. Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association Annual Convention.

BibTeX

@article{lobach_bierman_2004_lst_telephone,
  title = {Who's Calling at this Hour? Local Sidereal Time and Telephone Telepathy},
  author = {Lobach, Eva and Bierman, Dick J},
  year = {2004},
  journal = {Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association Annual Convention},
}

Who's Calling at this Hour? Local Sidereal Time and Telephone Telepathy

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