Psychophysical Interactions with Electrical Plasma: Three Exploratory Experiments

Streams of ionized gas in an 8-inch diameter plasma ball were recorded by a webcam while participants focused their attention toward or away from the plasma streams. They were instructed to hold the intention that the illumination observed by the webcam should increase, or to withdraw their attention and intention. The plasma ball in Experiment 1 was inside a sealed box 3 m from the participant. After 10 sessions, the result was a significant decrease in illumination when comparing the focus toward vs focus away conditions (z = -2.7, p = 0.007, two-tailed); control sessions without the participant showed no difference (z = -0.78, p = 0.44). Experiment 2 involved 10 participants, except the plasma ball was in an electromagnetically shielded chamber 4 m from the participants, with the chamber door open so they could see the ball. After 21 sessions the results were a significant increase in illumination in both experimental (z = 5.20, p = 2 x 10^-7) and control sessions (z = 2.3, p = 0.02). Experiment 3 involved 13 participants and 29 sessions, plus two types of plasma balls. It was conducted with the shielded chamber closed and with three randomly assigned intentional goals: aim for the plasma streams to move up, aim for the plasma streams to move right, or no aim (baseline condition). The results showed that the recorded illumination differed when the intention was to aim right vs aim up (z = 5.01, p = 5.6 x 10^-7). Similar results were obtained with the two plasma balls. These experiments suggest that electrical plasma may be a promising physical target for use in mind-matter interaction studies.