James McClenon
Chesapeake, VA, USA
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Introduction: This presentation updates findings from a previous series of online group PK experiments, completed in February 2023 (McClenon, 2021, 2024). Participants met weekly online, at multiple locations, passively seeking to influence pinwheels viewed by cameras in a closed room. A motion-activated camera recorded pinwheel turning frequency, pinwheel speed, and participant conversations. This allowed the evaluation of three hypotheses, all achieving statistical significance. Hypothesis #1: Pinwheel turning would be greater during group meetings than during equivalent non-meeting times (group meeting hypothesis). Hypothesis #2: Direct observation, indicated by participant conversation, would be associated with reduced pinwheel turning (direct observation hypothesis). Hypothesis #3: Rapid turning would occur more often during conversations involving psychical research, anomalous experience, occult traditions, and psychic readings than during miscellaneous conversations (conversation content hypothesis).
The previous experiments also generated qualitative observations: (1) The group perceived that the pinwheels turn more rapidly during conversations with emotional content. (2) Pinwheel behavior exhibits psi trickster characteristics (Kennedy, 2024). Experimental scrutiny was associated with reduced pinwheel turning, equipment failures, and unexpected, quirky events such as poltergeist-like phenomena.
Hypotheses and Theory: The study draws on hypotheses derived from Batcheldor’s artifact induction model (Batcheldor, 1984; Batcheldor & Giesler, 1994) and the ritual healing theory (McClenon, 1997, 2002, 2021). Batcheldor hypothesized that exposure to artifacts (normal processes that seem paranormal, such as unconscious pushing of the table by table-tipping groups) helps overcome psychological barriers that thwart psi. These barriers include fear of psi and ownership resistance (the desire to avoid responsibility for generating PK). Participants can overcome these obstacles through exposure to artifacts, resulting in belief and allowing authentic psi to occur (artifact induction). Batcheldor’s groups found that table-tipping phenomena declined when experimental controls were increased, causing him to revise his model to include innovative ideas regarding consciousness (Batcheldor & Giesler, 1994). Although Batcheldor’s model explains psi’s elusive qualities, it has received only limited parapsychological evaluation (Wehrstein, 2018).
The ritual healing theory hypothesizes that artifact induction shaped Paleolithic shamanism (McClenon, 1997, 2002, 2021, 2024). The theory argues that Paleolithic people, gathering around fires over many millennia, discovered ways to experience collective psi and that these endeavors resulted in shamanic rituals. Over the millennia, shamanic healing provided survival benefits to those with dissociative and hypnotic propensities, shaping modern genetic propensities for dissociation, spirituality, and religiosity. The theory implies that modern researchers should be able to experience contemporary forms of collective PK. The present study, a social psychological field experiment, evaluates this hypothesis while seeking insights regarding artifact induction processes.
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James McClenon, Ph. D., is a retired sociology professor and licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). He worked at Elizabeth City State University and the Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center. His books include The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery and Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion.
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Published on June 18, 2025
