spr vol64 surveys

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Journal of the Society or Psychical Researclt IVol .64.1,No. 86 1

TELEPATHIC TELEPHONE CALLS: TWO SURVEYSby Runnnr SI{ELDRAI(E

ABSTRACTIrlanypeople taim o have houghtebouta particularpcrsonwho hen calls hemon the telephone. [rough informalsurveys have ound hat seeminglyelepathictelephone cal ls are common. Two tclephone surveys were carried out in Londonand Bury to investigate thc frcquency of these experiences n a random sample ofthe populat ion. n both sr r rvcys, al f the rcsponder t ts aid thcy l tad fel t that some'one was about to telephone them just bcfore thcy did. In Bury, 45 per cent of therespon{clts snid thcy hnd tlrorrght nbotrt n pcrsorl thcy hn


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Journal of the Society for Psychical Researclr IVol .64.1,No. 861of 38? cases, he respondentsgave only their initials rather than forenamesand their sex was not recorded. his is why in the London data in Table I thetotal number of men and women s only 375.)

For comparing the statistical signi{icanceof differencesbetween the res-ponses rom men and women,2 x 2 contingency ablesand the chi-squarcd cstwere used(Campbell,1989).ResulrsThe Landon SurueyIn the London survey, 5L%of the respondents aid they had felt that some-one was going to telephone ust before they did so (Table 1). There was astriking difference between men and women, with 56% of women giving apositive esponseandq7%of men. This differencewas significant p < 0.0002).Table IResponses n the SurueJ in North Landon aboul Pcople's Orun Psycltic Experience and lheir

Anticipation of Telephone Cslls from Particular l'eople

I How frequently have you yourself had what you would consider to bc apsychic experience?

Numbers (and percentages) of peopleTotal Frequently Sometimes Never

All respondents 387 23 (6%) 125 (32%) 239 (62%)IMen 136 2 (r%) 39 (29%) 95 (70%)Women 239 20 (8%) 80 (33%) 139 (58%)

2 Have you ever felt that someone was going to telephone you just beforcthey did?

Numbers (and percentages) of peopleTotal Agree Disagree Don't know

All respondents 387 197 (5L%) 169 (44o/o) 2I (5%)Irten 136 56 (41%) 73 (54%) 7 (5%)Women 239 135 (56%) 9r (38%) 13 (5%)

When the same respondents were asked if they had had psychic experiences,only 38% gave positive responses. Thus significantly fewer (p < 0.0004) peoplesaid they had had psychic experiences han had fel t when someone was aboutto telephone.In relation to psychic experience there was again a significant (p < 0.02)difference between women and men, with 4l% of women saying they had had apsychic experience compared with only 30% of men.Of the people surveyed, 47% kept pets. Pet owners and people without petsshowed a similar pattern of response, though there was a slight but non-significant tendency for pet owners to give a higher proportion of positive

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Oclober20001 Telepathic Telephone Calls: Two Surueyaanswers: 53% of pet owners as opposed o 49%of peoplewithout pets said theyantic ipated sotneone elcplroning, nnd 39% nnd 38% resl lect ively said they ha dhad psychic cxperiences.7'1rc Rury Surucy

Nearly two thirds of the respondents in Bury said that they had had th ecxperience of telephoning somcone who said they were just thinking abouttelephoning them (Table 2). Wornen gave a significantly (p < 0.02) higherpercentageof posi t ive responses 71%) than men (53o/o),nd more women thanmen said they had such experiences requently.'l 'ablc2Surueyof TelepathicTclephoneCalls in llury, Lancashire200 leapondentan all, 68 Menand132Wonrcn)I l lave you ever telephoncd sorncone who said thcy werc just thinkingnbout te lephoning you ?

Nunrbers (and ; lcrcentages)of peopleYe s

All respondents 130 G5%)Men 36 (53%)Women 94 (7I%)

If yes ,how of ten has th is hnppened?

Ye.sAI I rcsponr lents 17 49'%)Men 29 (43%)Wonren 68 (52%)

If yes , how of t en hns t l r i s hnp l t ened?

Oftcrr Sornet imesAl l saying I 'es 52 (40%) $7 (52%)Men l l (31'2" ) 22 (61%\Wonren 4l (44%) 4l t (48n/ , )

No68 (34%)3l (4G%)37 (28o/o)

Not sure2 (L%)L ( r % )L ( L % )

Onceto (8%)3 (8%)7 (8%)

(Note: one woman respondent did not give ext ra detai ls. )2 [ {ave you ever heard t he t e l ep l r one r i ng or p i cked up t he t c l ephone an d

known who was on t he o t her end r v i t l r ou t nny poss i b l e cue, be f o re t heyhave spoken?

Nunrbers (anr l l l crccntages)of people

Of ten S orne t i r nesAll saying yes 36 (37%) lt, l (lGVo)Merr 12 (41%) 16 (55%)Wonren 2,1 lff ,6) 38 (569'")

No Not surel o l ( 5 1 % ) 2 ( t% )3e (57%) 0 (0%)62 (47%) 2 (2%)

Once7 (7%)| (3n6)6 (e%)


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Journal of the Socrety for Psychical Researclt IVol .64.4,No. 86 13 Have you ever had a thought about a person you haven't seen for a whi le,

who has then telephoned you thc snme day?Numbers (and percentages) of people

4 Approximately how many telephone cal ls do you receive a day?< 5 5 - r 0

All respondents 133 C7%) 53 (27%)(Nole;one espondent id not answer his qtrest ion.)

Yes NoAll respondents 89 (45%) 100 50%)Men 24 (35%) 38 (56%)Women 65 (49%) G2 47'1,)

If yes ,how of ten has th is hnppened?Often Sometimes

All sn.ying es 12 14%) 53 (609/,,)Men 3 (139'") l ' l (58%)Womcn I (14ol") 39 (60%)

Yes NoAll respondents 94 (47%) 97 (49%)Men 26 (389/") 40 (59%,)Women CB 52%) 57 (439/")

If yes , how of ten has t h i s happened?Often Sornetimes

r\ l l saying yes 27 (29%) 60 (64", '0)Men 7 (27%) 17 (65%)Women 20 (30%) 43 (63%)

Not sure1 1 ( 6 % )6 (e%)5 (4"/n)

Once24 (27%)

7 (2e%)17 (26%)

> 1 0L3 7% )

Not suree (5%)2 (3%)7 (5%)

Once7 (7%)2 (8%)5 (7%)

5 Apart f rom exper iences l ike this wi th tc lephone cal ls, have you had an yot her exper i enees that seern t o i nvo l vc t e l cpn t hy?

Numbers (and percentages) of people

Near ly ha l f thc respondenh (a9%)said that when answer ing the tc lephonethey knew who was on the other cnc l wi thot r t n t ry possiblc cttc, attd 45% saidthey had thotrght about a person they hadn't seen {br a while who then tele-phoned them. In responsc o bot l r thcse qt rcs l ionswornc ' r ave more posi [ ivcresponses han men (Table 2), btrt these cl i f ferenccswcre not signi f icant at th cp = 0.05 eve l .Over a third (37%) of thosc rvho said they kncw rvho was tclephoning beforethey had spoken had this expericncc frcrprcntly; fcwcr' ( l4o/, ')hacl frcqtrcntexperiences of thinking about sorneone hcy hacln't seen for a whi le who thentelephoned. There rvas l i t t le or no di f ference betu'ccn nren and womcn in thisrespect.

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October 20001 Telepathic TelephoneCalls: Two SurueysTwo'thirds of the people questioned said they usually received less than fivetelephone calls a day. Only 7% of the respondents had more than l0 calls a day.In response to the question about other experiences hat seem to involve tele-pathy, 47o/o aid they had had such experiences (Table 2). A higher proportionof women than men gave positive answers (52%o nd 38% r espectively), andslightly more women than men said these experiences occurred often. Thesedifferences were not significant at the p = 0.05 level.Previous random surveys of psychic experience in Britain gave rather higher

figures than these surveys in Bury and London: 64Yo Haraldsson, 1985) and5a% (Gaynard, 1992).A recent survey in Ramsbottom, near Bury, also gave anoverall figure of 54% (Sheldrake & Smart, 199?).In Bury, 42% of people questioned kept pets, and pet owners gave morepr-rs i t i venswers hnn pcoplcwi thout pc ts to u l l the ques t ionsabout thc ant i c i -pation of telephone calls and other telepathic experiences: or Question l ,7lyoand 62Yo respectivcly; Question 2, 56n/oand 46%; Question 3, Soyo and, 4o%o;Question 5, 55yo and 42%o. owever none of these differences was statisticallysigni f icant at the p = 0.05 evel .Dtscusslot lThe Incidence of Seemingly Telepathic Telephone Calls

I{alf the people questioned in London and in Bury said they hacl fett inadvance when someone was telephoning them, and 45o/o f the respondents inIlury said that they had thought about someone they had not seen for a whilewho then telephoned them.The positive responses in these formal surveys are considerably lower thanthe 80% to 95Y, figures I have repeatedly found in informal surveys of peopleat lectures and seminars. Why should there be such a large difference? Onepossibil ity is that my informal surveys gave an overestimate because of th enon-random nature of the sample and because of a positive bias introduced bythe way in which I asked the question. Another possibility is that the randomsurvey produces an underestimate because some people may be reluctant toadmit to such personal experiences to a stranger on the telephone. Both thesepossibil ities could have biased the results; if so, improved surveying methodswould probably give results intermediate between my formal and informalsurveys.

Although in the Bury survey only half of the respondents said they them-selves had antic ipated part icular people cal l ing, two thi rds said that they hadcal led someonewho said they were just thinking about telephoning Lhem; 40%said this happened often. The difference between these patterns of responsewas stat ist ical ly signi f icanL (p


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Journal of the Society for Psychical Researclt [VoI .64. r ,No.86 1about to call. Only further research can reveal the relative importance of thesepossible explanations.Psychic Experiences and the Anticipatiott, of Telcplrone Calls

In the survey in London, signil icantly fewer people (38%) claimed to havehad psychic experiences han to have antic ipated telephone calls (51%). Thisimplies that the anticipation of telephone calls was not regarded as a psychicexperience by some respondents, either because they thought this anticipationhad a more straightforward explanation, or because they took it for grantedand had not considered the possibil ity that it might be telepathic.In a survey in California, significantly more pet owners than non-ownersclaimed to have had psychic experiences Brown & Sheldrake, 1998).A similarpattern (although statistically non-significant) was found in the presentsurveys. I do not know whether keeping pets tends to make people more opento psychic experiencesr or rvhether people open to such experiences are nlorelikely to keep pets.Is the Anticipation, of Telephone Calls Really T'elepatlic?

There is no need to invoke telepathy i f a person antic ipates a telephone cal lfrom someone rvho rings at an expected time, or someone who is practicallythe only person rvho ever makes calls to the household. Probably no one wouldconsider these kinds of anticipation remarkable. More impressive are thosecases when someone starts thinking about a particular person for no apparentreason shortly before that person rings. Here a telepathic influence seems morelikely.Before call ing someone on the telephone, it is necessary to think about thatperson, perhaps to look up their number and then to dial it. Throughout thisprocess, he caller's intention is focused on the individual being called, and thisconcentration of intention might create favourable conditions for telepathy.Non-human nnimnls nrny also respond elel>athical ly o tc lephone cal ls.Somecat and dog owners claim that their animals reactwith excitement to calls frompeople they are attached to, even at non-routine times, from hundreds of milesaway. Some of these animals respond when the telephone begins to ring: othersdo so shortly beforehand. They ignore calls from other people (Sheldrake, 1999).But although the responses of some people and domestic animals totelephone calls may appear to be telepathic, could they be explained in moremundane way? There are at least two alternative hypotheses:-First, someone may expect a call from a particular person around aparticular time without being conscious of this expectation.Second, an il lusion of telepathy could be created by a combination of chancecoincidence and selective memory. Someone rnay often think about a particularperson or have a hunch that they are about to call. On those occasions that theperson does in fact call, this feeling would be attributed to telepathy, whilehunches not followed by calls would be forgotten.

Proposals for Empirical InuestigationAs far as I know, no one has attempted to test these hypotheses empirically.However, they could be investigated relatively simply and inexpensively.

October20001 TelepathicTelephoneCalla: Two SurueysI suggest a two-stnge rescarch progronlme:-1 People who say they often nntic ipate calls can l le encouraged to keep log'books, n which they recor. l nny intui t ions they may have about the identi ty oft [e cal lcr before they answcr the tclcplronc. This log book should be kept bythe telephone, and they shotrld rccort l this nanre before answering. (Of course,nny c lcc t ron icdev icewhi r : l r l isplays lrc nunrber of the incomingcnl l should bcswitched off or covered up.) After the cal l , they note t lown the date and t ime,an


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Journal of the Society for Psychical Research IVo I . 64 .4 , o .86 l

REFDRENCESBrcwn, D. J. and Sheldrake, R. (1998) Perceptive pets: a survey in northwest California.

JSPR 62, 39L406.CampbeU, R. C. (f989) Statistics for Biologists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Galmard, T. J. (1992) Young people and the parsnormal. JSPfi 58, 165-180.Haraldsson, E. (f985) Representative national surveys of psychic phenomena. JSPR 53,r37-r46.Sheldrake, R. (1999) Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, and OtherUrcxplained Powere of Animab. London: Hutchinson.Sheldrake, R., Lawlor, C. and Turney, J. (1998) Perceptive pets: a survey in London.

Bbbg Forum 91, 57-74.Sheldrake, R. and Smart, P. (1997) Psychic pets: a survey in northwest England. JSPfi

6r, 353-364.

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