An Experimental Approach

to Dreams and Telepathy

Methodology and Preliminary Findings
MONTAGUE ULLMAN, MD, BROOKLYN, NY

SCIENTIFIC interest in the

subject of Freud, scattered reports 8"14 began to appear
telepathy has, from time impinged in the literature, making reference to the
to time,
upon the mainstream of dynamic occurrence of telepathy in the course of psy
current
psychiatry. From an historical point of view, choanalytic therapy. It was not, however, un
it is of some interest to note the differing til the mid-1940's when a revitalized interest
points of view on this matter held by the in the whole subject (in its psychiatric im
three founding fathers of the psychoanalytic plications) was ushered in with the contri
movement. Although he never explicitly ac- butions of Eisenbud 15"19 and Ehrenwald,20"26
Knowledged belief1-4in the reality of the Phe- to be joined later by a handful of other in
nomenon, Freud did consider, in a number vestigators.27"31 These reports were essential
of papers written over the years, some of the ly descriptive in nature, focusing on an
implications of the telepathy hypothesis and occasional dream of a patient which was felt
its possible relevance to psychoanalytic to be presumptively telepathic by the thera
thought. Jung 5 seemed to have grown up pist. Judgments were based on the occurrence
with an unquestioning acceptance of telep- of close temporal and literal correspondences
athy and in his later years developed an of certain data of a striking and noninferen-
elaborate theoretical system in order to ex- tial kind appearing in the manifest content
plain paranormal occurrences of this kind.6 of the patient's dream to events in the life
Adler7 rejected the idea of telepathy, con- of the therapist. The historical heritage of
Sidering such claims as no more than com- this relatively brief interlude of clinical in
Pensatory neurotic mechanisms. terest in the psychopathologyof the tele
Freud noted several kinds of paranormal pathic process included: (a) ashared sense
of conviction among a small group of in
experiences occurring in the context of the
treatment situation, including the possibility vestigators concerning the reality of such
of telepathic influence upon dreaming. He occurrences; (b) the elaboration of criteria
was the first to suggest that, were telepathy
for evaluating presumptively telepathic ex
a reality, one of the factors standing in the periences; and, finally, (c) the further de
way of the direct recognition of a telepathi- velopment and application of psychoanalytic
cally perceived event would be the likelihood insights and principles to the problems
of the dynamic distortion such a perception associated with the timing and meaning of
would be apt to undergo in its transition telepathic occurrences.
from an unconscious to a conscious level. Descriptions of telepathic dreams occur
Following these early conjectures of ring in the therapeutic context suffer from
some of the same
Submitted for publication Nov 18, 1965.
methodological weaknesses
From the Department of Psychiatry, Maimonides as anecdotal material. Their occurrence is
Hospital of Brooklyn, and State University of New episodic and uncontrollable. They appear
York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn. under conditions in which no advance prep
Read before the 121st annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Psychiatric Association, New York City, May 4, aration is made to exclude sensory cues. As
1965. a final drawback, the individual involved in
Reprint requests to 4802 Tenth Ave, Brooklyn, NY
11219. the experience is also the one evaluating its

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 telepathic potential. Because of these reasons,
the data offered in support of the reality of
the telepathic dream, while at times quite
striking and often ingeniously linked to the
dynamics of the treatment situation, have not
proven either a sufficient or a reliable evi
dential basis for further scientific inquiry.
Spontaneous accounts of paranormal
events as well as the above reports of their
intrusion into the clinical situation appear
to favor the view that an altered state of
consciousness, such as that occurring while
dreaming, in some way facilitates their mani
festation.
A laboratory approach to the question of
the occurrence of telepathy in dreams became
possible with the advent of current phys
iological techniques for the monitoring of
dreams. In addition to the general augmenta
tion of our knowledge concerning dreaming
and its relationship to the sleep-wakefulness
cycle, the use of the physiological parameters
described by Dement and Kleitman 32 made
it feasible to design a telepathy experiment
in connection with dreaming. It was now
possible for the first time to obtain a near
total yield of dream recall for any given
night. The agent or sender could program
the telepathic stimulus (target picture) in
any desired relationship to the recurrent
episodes of dreaming in the course of a
single night. He could be reasonably certain
of having three to six dream reports per
night to compare with the target for cor
respondences at a manifest level.
Accordingly, in the summer of 1960 a
series of exploratory studies * was under
taken to test the general hypothesis that the
altered state of consciousness associated with
dreaming favors the appearance in the dream
of a telepathically perceived stimulus.
Method
Two rooms on the premises of the Para
psychology Foundation were used for these
initial studies. One housed a standard four-
channel electroencephalograph (EEG) along
with the necessary recording equipment
(tape recorder and intercommunication sys-
*
These studies were carried out with the assistance
of Karlis Osis, PhD, and Mr. Douglas Dean who were
then members of the research staff of the Parapsy-
chology Foundation.
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tern). The EEG was monitored by a tech
nician who, along with the agent, remained
in this room. The other room was arranged
as sleeping quarters for the subject. The
two rooms were acoustically isolated except
for controlled communication by means of
an intercom. A microphone at the subject's
bedside led into the tape recorder in the
agent's room.
The subjects in the exploratory phase
were drawn from among interested colleagues
and friends as well as from volunteers un
known to the agent. They were asked to
report to the laboratory at their usual bed
time. The electrodes were applied by the
technician, and the subject was instructed
about the general nature and purpose of the
experiment.
Recordings were taken from both external
canthi to pick up movements of lateral con
jugate gaze and from the frontal and parietal
areas to record the stages of sleep. The sub
ject was awakened toward the estimated end
of each bout of rapid eye movement ( REM )
and asked to describe his dream. During the
exploratory phase, the targets used were
either free-hand drawings initiated by the
agent after the subject went to sleep or a
picture chosen at random from a series pre
pared earlier by another investigator. The
pictures were placed in sealed opaque en
velopes, and the target picture was not
opened until after the subject had fallen
asleep. The agent or sender concentrated
upon the target from time to time throughout
the night. His contact with the sleeping
subject was limited to inquiring about his
dream on each occasion that the subject was
awakened during a REM period. The brain
waves and eye movements were monitored
continuously until the subject awakened
spontaneously in the morning.
Example 1.Free drawing as target material.
The subject was a psychoanalytic colleague. He
had an open-minded attitude about the possible
occurrence of telepathy.
The subject was asleep by 12:15 am. No target
was prepared prior to the initial awakening which
occurred at 2 :40 am. At that time he was unable
recall anything other than being in a car.
to
The sequence of subsequent awakenings was as
follows :
3:40 am : A circle was drawn as the target
(Fig 1).
 s
3-

<
/
ClKcL
Fig 1.Freehand drawing
of a circle.

<n
Y Fig 3.Freehand drawing of angular shapes.

4:30 am : As a further contrast to the roundness

of the first target, additional angular shapes were
drawn (Fig 3).
5 :30 am : The subject reported as follows :
"No single dream, just things would sort of
pass, images. I can't recall any although I recall
feeling as if I was going from one little dream
to another. That's all I recall. I recall one small
part of a dream where Flo Bonime * was tying a
bow on Leah's belt or fixing the back of her belt
and there seemed to be, I don't know, some friend
ly kind of a relationship. That was one of the
small dreams I had, one of several."
6:30 am : The subject reported the following
dream :
> 4 /4>*ouT "I had a number of dreams in sequence. But I
don't remember them well. One was, we were
Fig 2.Freehand drawing of a bow and standing around, some people were standing around,
arrow.
and they had in their hands canes shaped like
3:53 am: Subject awakened and reported the hockey sticks, used upside down, the curved part
up. But they were shaped more like free form than
following dream : plain hockey sticks. And there was in the dream
"I feel as if I was sort of floating to sleep at two of my wife's cousins, a married couple. We
the time. I had an image of a, oh, it wasn't really see them about twice a year and in the dream I
like a dream. It was sort of like being on a round was kind of indifferent to them or critical of them
road, like the bottom half of a large tube, such because of some opinions they had. And you made
as if you would be going into the Holland Tunnel a comment, 'Why are you so critical?' And I had
or something sort of like a road. As I was travel other dreams I can't recall, there was a series of
ing, there seemed to be people there but it didn't them. You sort of woke me up after I had them.
seem to be like a typical dream. Sort of falling I mean you asked me about the dreams after they
asleep I caught an image and I was conscious of had gone on for some time in the past. As a
just having started to fall asleep. I was on a road
shaped like the curve of a trough." \s=d\In view of the fact that any deletion of names
might lessen the possible significance of the results,
4 am : To effect a contrast with the first target, permission was obtained by the subject as well as the
the agent drew an arrow pointing upright. To people referred to in the dream, to reproduce this
material. The subject was analyzed by Dr. Walter
make it appear more arrow-like, the picture of a Bonime. Flo Bonime is Dr. Bonime's wife and Leah
bow was drawn (Fig 2). is the subject's wife.

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 matter of fact, I remember waking up after the
one with the hockey sticks and wondering why
you didn't ask me whether I had been dreaming.
I went back to sleep. That's all I can think of."
Inquiry the following morning produced this
additional information :
(You mentioned hockey sticks?) "Yes, I guess
it was like a party. People were there and they
had canes, but very nicely shaped canes like hockey
sticks. They weren't hockey sticks actually but
about the same size, long, and the shape was very
good for them. Now I think I know before I
went to sleep I was thinking of the fact that Leah
and I were invited to a banquet at the Waldorf
given by this international society for the welfare
of cripples, maybe that's why this came, and of
course I don't like the idea of having to go formal
and we were planning to go camping around that
time but it seemed we were invited as guests. The
hockey sticks were not all exactly the same shape.
It has to do with disability, at the same time in
spite of the disabilities these people get around
pretty well."
Comment: What appeared of interest
was the way in which the dream sequences
seemed to follow the successive target pic
tures. The correspondences to the circular
form emerged concretely in a context ap
parently derived from an earlier image in
volving a car. The next dream made no
direct reference to the intended target
(arrow) but two references to the bow that
was drawn. They were in the form of an
alliteration to the name "Bonime" and the
other to a bow of a different kind. It was
also of interest that the subject spontaneous
ly registered surprise at the degree of in
volvement in his dream with geometrical
shapes.
Example 2.Colored photograph as target. The
subject was a dentist, curious but skeptical about
telepathy.
The target was not opened by the agent until
3:15 am. It showed a monk squatting before what
the agent initially took to be a square blue patch
of stone. Later, on closer examination, this ap
peared to be a garden. Along one
was a diamond-shaped pattern in the pavement
(Fig 4).*
The dreams occurring subsequent to the opening
of the target are reported in full.
4:20 am : "I was approaching a masonry wall
with the stones put together very neatly. Someone
else and I are seated in a cab of some large
vehicleit might be a tractor. We're coming up
\s=dd\The target picture used for this experiment has
been taken from the pages of a magazine and, at this
date, the source could not be traced for the purpose
of obtaining a release. A drawing of the relevant
detail in the picture is shown in its stead.
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Patch of Soil (grey)
. .
.
Fig 4.Rendition of "Monk" picture.
to this wall. The wall is grey in color. There is
mortar between the stones."
4:45 am : "There was a very small diamond-
shaped aperture in the wall. I was with someone
else. We were traveling in what seemed like the
front of some very big vehicle parallel to the large
wall. We came to a small diamond-shaped hole in
the wall. One of us remarked, 'Look at that.' The
wall was grey."
5 :24 am : "There was a figure of a diamond, a
diamond shape was in it."
5 :35 am : "We were in Alaska, my wife and I
were together. It was about 7 o'clock in the morn
ing and I said to her, well it's very unlikely that
you'll ever see the sun this low in the horizon
again at such an hour. And she said, 'Yes, I
noticed that.' It wasn't at all cold. We were walk
ing along in what seemed to be a forest with only
what seemed to be very few trees until we came
to one large, very large tree, with thick branches,
no leaves, it was at the time when it didn't seem
to be cold, and Lillian pointed out to me then,
on the trunk of the tree there was a large diamond,
like a trapazoid had been cut out of the center of
the trunk of the tree."
Comment: The first dream describes a
masonry wall with stones put together neat
ly. The three subsequent dreams all make
reference to diamond shapes.
Results similar to those described above
border there were noted in 14 out of 22 experimental
sessions occurring over a two-year period
of time. They appeared to be sufficiently
encouraging to warrant a more systematic
investigation once a dream laboratory was
established at Maimonides Hospital. Accord
ingly, a pilot project utilizing 12 subjects
on 12 different experimental nights was
designed with a view to : (a) tightening the
\s=s\This study was carried out with the collaboration
of Stanley Krippner, PhD, Mr. Sol Feldstein, Miss
Sally van Steenburgh, and Miss Joyce Plosky.

Fig 5."Zapatistas," by Jose Clemente Orozco
(reproduced with the permission of the Museum
of Modern Art, New York City ; given anony
mously).
conditions so as further guard against the
to
of
possibilities sensory cues; (b) arranging
for the correlation between target material
and dreams to be made by three outside
judges working independently; and (c)
evolving appropriate statistical tools for eval
uating the result. These procedures are de
scribed in full elsewhere33,34 and will be
briefly explained here.
Conditions.The main change here was
to separate the agent and experimenter and
to insure that the former had no contact at
all with the subject at any time during the
night. The experimenter, responsible for
monitoring the electroencephalographic rec
ord, also awakened the subject and elicited
the dreams. A separate room was provided
for the agent. Two agents were used, each
taking six experimental nights.
The subjects were paid volunteers over the
age of 21.
The targets were 5x8 inch prints of fa
mous paintings.
Judging.Three judges each received
copies of the 12 targets as well as the entire
dream protocol of each subject. They were
asked to rank the targets in order from 1 to
12 according to which one they felt was
most likely to have been the target for a
particular subject. The judges first judged
the dream protocols alone and then the
dreams plus the associative data elicited fol
lowing awakening in the morning. The sub
jects upon awakening in the morning were
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also asked to rank the 12 potential targets
against the recall of the night's dreams.
Findings.The data for the rankings and
ratings of the judges approached, but did not
attain, significance when evaluated by analy
sis of variance. Agent differences were in
vestigated by analysis of variance based on
confidence ratings given by each judge to
his ranking of the 12 targets against the
dream protocols and associative data. A
significant difference in favor of agent 2 over
agent 1 was demonstrated (F 6.47; < =
0.05). The subjects ranked the 12 potential
targets against their recall of the night's
dreams more correctly than would be ex
pected by chance. Use of the binomial expan
sion technique produced results significant
at the 0.05 level.
In the following examples, excerpts have
been taken from four dream protocols to
illustrate the kinds of correlations noted
between dream and target and the way the
target was ranked by the judges and the
subject. A rank of 1 would be the most
favorable score while a rank of 12 would be
the least favorable. Phrases in italics appear
especially pertinent.
Example 3
Subject, man, psychologist
Target, "Zapatistas" by Jose Clemente Orozco
(Fig 5)
Judge Judge Judge Subject
ABC
Ranking without
associations 6 11
Ranking with
associations 3 11 3
Dream 1 : "A storm. Rainstorm. It reminds me
of traveling.
approaching a rainstorm, thunder
. .
cloud, rainy...
very distant scene. For some . .
reason, I get a feeling of memory, nozv, of New .
Mexico when I lived there. There are a lot of
mountains around Nczv Mexico, Indians, Pueblos.
Now my thoughts go to almost as though I were
thinking of another civilisation."
Dream 2 : No obvious references.
Dream 3 : "All I can seem to remember now is
the action of two people. It was either a man,
it was a woman, I think. But superimposed on
that was more of the awareness of the light."
Dream 4 : ". they were trying to convince this
.
woman that she should go in a particular direction
.
to see something that was going on. Either they
were shooting a picture or there was a play or
. .
a stage production. I think this particular part
.
...
makes me think more of Los Angeles, like the
early period of motion pictures, as though it was
 Fig 6."The Sacred Fish," 1919, by Giorgio di Fig 7."Football Players," 1908, by Henri
Chirico (reproduced with permission of the Museum Rousseau (reproduced with permission of The
of Modern Art, New York City; The Philip L. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Goodwin Collection). City, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Col
lection).
being filmed reason, I recall
. . . a For some ...

trip. When I was younger, I was in the Scouts, was 'beyond poise.' He asked me now to spell
and I went to a camp one summer, and this comes 'beyond poise' and first I spelled it with a hyphen
back to mind. It was out in the country, by a river. between the two words, and I spelled it without
A lot of activities took place there. Oh, another .
it ... I responded and said that I was anxious,
thing in the dream that stood out, there was a . . and he said, 'About Mother's day?' and I was about
great deal of noise in the dream. The noise was to tell him that my mother was deceased, and I
made by the activity." thought he said something about the floor, about
Dream 5 : No obvious references. washing the floor first and you had gone swim
. .

Excerpts from subject's associations: "For some ming in a pool. It was then that he started
.
.

reason, my first dream, impressed me very much. . .

talking about spelling, asked me how I felt about
... . .

I lived in Santa Fe
. . .and during the Fiesta . . .
.
'poise.' He might have/ think the word is a play
a great many of the Indians come in with their on words. . When I first dozed off to sleep, the
. .

wares. Oh , it seems like there were heavy

. . .
first time I settled down for sleep, I had, as I was
clouds behind this. Perhaps the coloring in . .
going off, an image of an oak, a large oak library-
New Mexico fits it, the mesa as it runs up the .
type table. ." . .

mountains. Here it gets into this epic type of

.
Dream 3 : "There seem to be people, seem to be

thing . .A DeMille super-type colossal produc

.
. . talk about one particular subject. An associa . .

tion." tion to that would be maybe special holiday family .

affairs when occasions, you know, like just holiday

Example 4
Subject, woman, secretary things. Just holidays like Easter. I did receive...

a notice from the cemetery. On the anniversary of

Target, "The Sacred Fish," by Giorgio di Chirico
(Fig 6) my mother's death, it's their custom to do this
Judge Judge Judge Subject light a candleand this may have to do with the
ABC other dream about which the person represented
Ranking without had asked me if I knew it was my mother's birth
associations 3 2 2 day. I think that's how that came about."
Ranking with Dream 4 : "I think there were political people in
associations 4 2 2 3 it.. .The thought had to do with France.
. It ...

Dream 1 : No obvious references. seemed to me it was a sort of soiree where people

Dream 2 : "... I had a dream that Sid came into were talking about politics."

the room and asked me hozv to spell 'poise.' II It Excerpts from subject's associations :".../
dreamed that Sol had come into this experiment to
11 The French word for "fish" is "poisson." This startle me, and then speak to me about what I
subject spoke French fluently and made a reference to
France in dream 4. thought of the word 'poise.' And you had gone

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 get this feeling of spokes going by on a revolving
drum. ."
. .

Dream 3 : "Oh, I think of summer camp. I re

member that you have to be able to tip over a
canoe and right it again, something like that. These
. . .

were obstacle tests."

Dream 4 : "I was peeling an onion and talking
to somebody. But before that, I was dreaming
. . .

about my mother as a little girl standing in the

doorway of a Victorian parlor, facing a niche of
some sort, and this arch doorway was all sur
rounded with some kind of filigree like curtains,
or some twig design that they thought was very
artistic around 1903 or 1904 or so." '
Dream 5 : No obvious references.
Dream 6 : "Myself and two other kids. Any . .

way, we were swimming in a swimming pool.

.
. . .

The scene shifts and it has something to do with

the headmaster of a prep school, so I suppose that
the swimming pool was at prep school."
Excerpts from subject's associations: "There was
an awful lot of movement. I think it ivas kind
of a counter-clockwise motioncircular, revolving . . .

motion. There was even a merry-go-round in

.

it somewhere." . .

Example 6
Subject, woman, secretary
Target, "The Moon and the Earth" by Paul
Gauguin (Fig 8)
Judge Judge Judge Subject
ABC
Ranking loithout
associations 4 5 2
Ranking with
associations 5 5 5 2
Dream 1 : No obvious references.
Dream 2 : "I was in a bathing suit doing the .

Fig 8."The Moon and the Earth (Hina dream experiment in the bathtub full of water, . .

Tefatu)," 1893, by Paul Gauguin (reproduced with and we were finishing, and we had to get up out
permission of the Museum of Modern Art, New of the wet bathtub, out of the water and we
York City; Lillie P. Bliss Bequest).
. .

were dripping wet. They showed a clothesline .

.

where you could hang your bathing suit out on. . .

swimming. . I'm not a sportswoman but I love

. .

And they were speaking about something. We had

outdoors, and I'm not even a swimmer." some drops in our eyes so the water wouldn't
Example 5 bother. ." . .

Subject, man, psychologist Dream 3 : "I was speaking to some boy and he
Target, "Football Players" by Henri Rousseau was showing me a map of the Middle East and . . .

(Fig 7) he was sketching. It almost looked like part ...

Judge Judge Judge Subject of the Sphinx the way it was sketched."
ABC Dream 4 : "I must have been working in New
Ranking without York . and I took a lift from the bridge
.
. . .

associations 8 5 11 with somebody I know .

and he drove me to his . . .

Ranking with home. And then my aunt was with us all of a

associations 8 5 11 4 sudden, and / was still in my pajamas that I am
Dream 1 : "Semicircular kind of courtyard
... wearing now. ." .

... o semicircular quality like statues in a semi Dream 5 : "I'm talking to someone. Oh, we're in
.

circle.'' church and, and somebody introduces a girl who

Dream 2: ". this lone object shaped like a
.
is a dancing girl and she comes over and she
. . .

cylinder, sort of like a cheesebox, only smaller,

.
says, 'Oh, I want to get a tan.' She's very fair. And
about five or six inches in diameter, and it's red I'm yelling to her to stay in the sun instead of
lacquer, and it's spinning like a top. Only it's not running in and out all the time. ." Experimenter : . .

really, it's rotating around. And now I remember "Does it remind you of anything?" Subject: "Well,
that the semicircle did the same thing
. . . I ...
" Rousseau painted "Football Players" in 1908.

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 I think the dancing girl was one of my girl friends
who I'm close with. She's fair and doesn't tan
easily. ."
. .
Excerpts from subject's associations : "We were
in a big church and . .she popped out came
down, and everybody started to clap this Arabic
. .
melody, and she zvas doing a dance .and she
was very fair and she was complaining that she
. .
was too fair, she wanted to get a tan. And I said,
'Well, stay out in the sun; it takes time to get a
tan.' And she said, 'No,' she wanted a quick tan,
and was complaining and somebody came over and
was kissing her shoulder. And I said to her, 'Look,
your shoulders are tan. If you take your time, you
can get the rest of you tan.'
"
Experimenter : "Was
there anything unusual in these dreams ?"
Subject: "I could picture the fair skin, the dark
tan, what she was complaining about, and the big
colors in the church, but there were no unusual
feelings or I wasn't upset by any of the dreams."
Comment: Blind matching of the kind
employed depends the
on ability of the judges
and the subject to detect correspondences
between the dream protocol and the target
picture. They had complete freedom to make
the judgments in any way they wished to.
They were free to focus on any of the dream
elements, on the dream as a whole or on any
feeling generated by the dreams. They were
faced with the time-consuming and difficult
task of matching the dream productions of
an entire night against 12 different pictures
and, in the case of the judges, repeating this
on 12 separate occasions. Considering the
difficult task of arriving at a judgment under
these conditions, the statistical findings as
well as the study of direct correspondences
between dream and target are sufficiently
encouraging to warrant further investigation.
Alternative hypotheses rest upon the
possibility of either the subject or the judges
discovering the identity of the target picture
used on a particular night. All transactions
with the judges occurred by mail. Nothing
other than the dream protocols and associa
tions were included in the mailing so that if
any relevant information were passed on to
the judges it could only have been on the
basis of collusion. If this hypothesis is set
aside as it pertains to the judges, agent, and
subject, then the only remaining possibility
is unconscious cuing from the agent to the
subject once the former learned the target
picture. Since the agent did not have direct
contact with the subject once the target
picture was exposed, the possibility of pass-
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ing on significant features of the target
picture via the experimenter and over the
intercom seems rather remote. In a replica
,
tion study 35 which is now in progress, even
. .
this possibility is guarded against by isolat
ing the agent in a separate room at a distance
of over 100 feet from the subject. As a fur
ther safeguard the targets will be prepared
by a third person so that neither the experi
menter nor the agent will know the range
of targets tobe used. The emphasis in this
presentation has been on introducing a
...
methodological innovation for the investiga
tion of possible telepathic perception in the
dreaming phase of the sleep cycle. Although
the findings at this stage barely approach
statistical significance, it must be remembered
that unselected subjects were used in this
pilot study. If we are dealing with a fine ex
trasensory effect this could be more clearly
defined by working more intensively with a
few gifted subjects. Current experiments
along these lines are now in progress.
Extrasensory electroencephalographic in
duction of -rhythm in one of a pair of identi
cal twins has recently been noted by Duane
and Behrendt,36 but because of the paucity
of controlled data, no effort was made to
assess the significance of their results on the
general issue of extrasensory perception.
Motoyama 37 has reported positive results in
the correlation of EEG patterns with suc
cessful hits in an extrasensory perception
experiment. The present report is offered
both because of the significant correlations
noted between dream protocols and targets
under carefully controlled conditions and be
cause the basic design is simple enough to
be easily replicable in any other dream
laboratory.
Summary
The possible occurrence of telepathic ele
ments in dream content has remained at the
conjectural level owing to the lack of con
sistent data and the absence of any method
ology for eliciting such data on a replicable
basis. The development of the rapid eye
movement for monitoring the dreaming phase
of the sleep cycle has made it possible to
explore, under laboratory conditions, the pos
sible occurrence of telepathic perception dur-
 ing sleep. In an exploratory study in which
the sleep and eye movements of the subject
were monitored throughout the night, a
number of striking correlations were noted
qualitatively between target material viewed
by a sender or agent in a room acoustically
isolated from the subject and dream content.
In a pilot study on 12 subjects carried out
under conditions designed to exclude sensory
cuing and where the dream protocols and
target pictures were subject to independent
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